Laura Ingalls Wilder's "Little House..." books are coming into public domain, so I've been reading them and Book #2 is "Farmer Boy," about her future husband's childhood, and I feel like the main reason for this book is to politely tell us her dad, Charles "Pa" Ingalls, was a shithead. Because if you just read her story, you'd think, "wow, life in pioneer days sucked." But then you read "Farmer Boy" and they have money and a nice farm and live near a town and make things better for themselves every year. Meanwhile Pa is wrestling bears for honey to keep the family from starving in the winter and moving them halfway across country to live in Indian territory, only to learn that SURPRISE! Settlers aren't supposed to live in Indian territory. Or borrowing heavily against a wheat crop during "grasshopper weather" only to find out the locals call it "grasshopper weather" because that's when grasshoppers come and eat every plant out there. Or walking 300 miles to find a job because he blew all their money before they had it. Or going into town during constant blizzards and then almost freezing to death within sight of home.
Then the next book starts with--oh, shit, I forgot the time where they all got malaria and almost died--anyways, the time where most of them got scarlet fever and Mary went blind. It's a real shit-show. Because Charles is a fucking retard.