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maudvandevenne4's review against another edition
3.0
Goed geschreven maar sleept wel een beetje aan.
scrabblerz's review
4.0
Enjoyable quick read. Looking forward to picking up Russo's new book later this summer.
sdbecque's review
4.0
I'm generally a fan of Russo's writing, so I wasn't surprised I liked this. It's a memoir, but it's also a memoir that's incredibly focused on his relationship with his mother. It's not a relationship that was always easy. Russo's father and mother divorced when he was young, and he's an only child leaving a lot of caring for his mother entirely to him. A lot of the other reviews I've seen of this book focus on how depressing it is (yeah, it is), how troubling the relationship is between them (yeah, that too) but I think the heart of the book has to do with his relationship to his mother and her relationship to the town he grew up in. If you've read Russo's other books, it's clear that he has a ambivalent relationship to the dying small towns of Central New York, and I thought this provided an interesting discussion of where he comes at that relationship from.
msmichaela's review
4.0
I love Russo's novels, and really enjoyed the chance to read more about the story behind his stories. Plus, he meets my litmus test for a memoirist: he's harder on himself than he is on anyone else in the tale.
lisadee's review
4.0
What possesses a person to read a memoir of an author they have yet to read? For me it was a random reading challenge, but with the added incentive of having one of Russo’s books on my tbr. As it turns out I think that reading his memoir first will provide insight into his stories and novels.
This book is about his mother as much as it is about him. It narrates the path of mental illness in his mother as it also plots his pathway from a kid from a small mill town, through college, teaching and finally a full time published author.
There were some similarities of his life and my own small town upbringing. His growing up in a town once booming with glove making and leather processing which eventually leaves the town high and dry when all of that proves to be poisoning it’s land and people so production moves to countries less concerned about that. My own indirectly dependent on coal and related industries and again you question if you really should mourn the loss of something that gives you prosperity but poisons those you love and the place you call Home.
This book is about his mother as much as it is about him. It narrates the path of mental illness in his mother as it also plots his pathway from a kid from a small mill town, through college, teaching and finally a full time published author.
There were some similarities of his life and my own small town upbringing. His growing up in a town once booming with glove making and leather processing which eventually leaves the town high and dry when all of that proves to be poisoning it’s land and people so production moves to countries less concerned about that. My own indirectly dependent on coal and related industries and again you question if you really should mourn the loss of something that gives you prosperity but poisons those you love and the place you call Home.
therealnani's review
4.0
I enjoyed reading this book, but there were some points towards the end where I thought Russo could've neatly closed his story instead going on and on.
relytolley's review
4.0
"It was from my mother that I learned reading was not a duty but a reward, and from her that I intuited a vital truth: most people are trapped in a solitary existence, a life circumscribed by want and failures of imagination, limitations from which readers are exempt. You can't make a writer without first making a reader, and that's what my mother made me." 156