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3.83 AVERAGE
3.83 AVERAGE
I was up and down and back and forth while reading this memoir. Sometimes it was page turning, but then other times it was very slow. Some parts were laugh out loud funny and a true representation of a boy growing up in the 50s. My husband, of similar age, also was in love with Annette from the Micky Mouse Club! I was torn between 2 and 3 stars, but either way it wouldn't be a book I rave about to others.
This book was an assigned text for my Literature class. I'm finding it really difficult to describe how much this book captivated me, from beginning to end. Words just can't do my feelings justice in this regard.
I really liked Wolff's honesty. He doesn't try and gloss over his own shortcomings & bad deeds. It just makes the work seem a lot more raw and authentic.
I really liked Wolff's honesty. He doesn't try and gloss over his own shortcomings & bad deeds. It just makes the work seem a lot more raw and authentic.
dark
emotional
sad
tense
slow-paced
Didn't always love this, but I loved the way Wolff inhabited his character—he manages to portray his younger self as simultaneously troubled and sympathetic; young Jack is often wildly unlikable, but in a way that tells us that the author knows that his character-self is unlikable. No apologies, just 'here it is'. His portraits of other people are so black-and-white in that way that manages to show both Jack's perspective and the ways in which they did have shades of grey. I don't know what to do with it, really, but it's disturbing and complex. (I love complex.)
Read this for class, and half my class was convinced that there's nary a redeemable character in the book. Dwight? Abusive jerk. Jack? Budding sociopath. His mother? Doormat who puts her son in the path of an abuser. I'm with the other half of the class, who said 'yeah, they are kind of all that, but they're all that and more'. Dunno when I'll get around to reading more Wolff, but even a few weeks later, when we've moved on to other books, this is providing food for thought.
Read this for class, and half my class was convinced that there's nary a redeemable character in the book. Dwight? Abusive jerk. Jack? Budding sociopath. His mother? Doormat who puts her son in the path of an abuser. I'm with the other half of the class, who said 'yeah, they are kind of all that, but they're all that and more'. Dunno when I'll get around to reading more Wolff, but even a few weeks later, when we've moved on to other books, this is providing food for thought.
emotional
reflective
fast-paced
We sang as if we’d been saved
A nicely written memoir. Very clean and eary to read. He kept me interested without being over-the-top. I have mixed feelings about his mother. I truely believe that she just wanted to do all she could for her son. Nice memoir. I would reccommend this.
Excellent writing; funny and sad stories of growing up on the fringes of America
Cleary a good writer. Wasn't particularly captivated by the narrative.