A review by erinmp
The End of the World as We Know It: Scenes from a Life by Robert Goolrick

2.0

Not good. I picked this up because he grew up in Virginia, as did I. Yes, his memories of childhood more or less matched mine even though 30 years apart. It's not hard to guess from the book jacket what happened to him--but he doesn't tell you until 50 pages before the end. And while his father raping him at four is horrific, my ability to feel sorry for him had almost diminished by that point. The whining and whining about how hard is life is just grated on my nerves after a while. Everyone has crappy things happen to them, and the point is to move on. He never did. Maybe it's not possible. But he doesn't seem to really want to try. He doesn't want to get close to anyone again, and so he doesn't. Don't waste your time with this one.