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jpeaslee 's review for:
My Life, Deleted: A Memoir
by Joan Bolzan, Caitlin Rother, Scott Bolzan
I made it 75% through before quitting. This guy is an asshole. How anyone could find him inspirational is beyond me. He's filled with anger issues and petty masculinity issues, and it's clear from his book that this did not start with his accident. Everything he says and does is filtered through a lens of "Be a MAN." He has a felony charge that could have been avoided in he had confided in his wife, but instead he decided to hide his plan from her. Because, you know, women can't handle stress (it's not like many of us go around birthing children or leaking blood from our bodies on a monthly basis, no sir).
That's not enough for me to rate the book so poorly. It's also poorly written. The writing is bland and uninspired. Simply put, it's boring.
At one point Scott talks about how he's okay with gay marriage, but having to look at two men kissing makes him uncomfortable (sigh). He specifically states this about men, not women, presumably due to his masculinity issues (and he's probably wanked it to lesbian porn). This information was completely irrelevant. It was smooshed in between two paragraph - the previous paragraph is about googling financial terms; the latter is about seeing a neurologist. See what I mean? Terrible, disjointed writing.
I also found it hard to relate to this family. At one point Scott complains that his son is disrespecting him...because s son's ears are pierced with gauges. Scott thinks it's wrong to modify your body since he and his wife brought him into this world in one piece. Scott doesn't remark on whether his daughter or wife has pierced ears, but presumably that would be okay, because they're women. Even so, how much of an asshole do you have to be to decree that what someone does with THEIR body is disrespectful towards YOU? Oh, and Scott has a tattoo.
Speaking of tattoos, Scott tells his son, Grant, that he wish Grant didn't have a tattoo of his dead sister's name near his heart, because he doesn't believe Grant could possibly care, since he hadn't even been born yet. ASSHOLE. Even worse, Scott says that Taylor, his daughter, also has a tattoo of the dead sister's name, but he's okay with that because he thinks Taylor is more spiritual. That is when I gave up reading.
I mean, Scott talks about crying when he finds out about his stillborn daughter. But if Grant couldn't possibly care because he wasn't born yet, then how can Scott care? He doesn't even remember her. But does Scott ever ponder this or reflect on his hypocrisy? Nope!
Scott is constantly furious with Grant because Grant is a drug addict, and although I understand this, I also wonder what it was like for Grant, having to grow up with Scott as a father. I would have done drugs, too. Scott sounds horrible. Just awful, possibly even emotionally abusive.
Then there was the money. Scott's wife doesn't work (of course) and the medical bills are piling up. They have four cars. And a yacht. And they are reluctant to sell any of it. Oh, they finally do, but reading about this privileged, rich family and how they didn't want to sell the car that they only used to drive to their yacht in California was maddening. Get some goddamn perspective.
That's not enough for me to rate the book so poorly. It's also poorly written. The writing is bland and uninspired. Simply put, it's boring.
At one point Scott talks about how he's okay with gay marriage, but having to look at two men kissing makes him uncomfortable (sigh). He specifically states this about men, not women, presumably due to his masculinity issues (and he's probably wanked it to lesbian porn). This information was completely irrelevant. It was smooshed in between two paragraph - the previous paragraph is about googling financial terms; the latter is about seeing a neurologist. See what I mean? Terrible, disjointed writing.
I also found it hard to relate to this family. At one point Scott complains that his son is disrespecting him...because s son's ears are pierced with gauges. Scott thinks it's wrong to modify your body since he and his wife brought him into this world in one piece. Scott doesn't remark on whether his daughter or wife has pierced ears, but presumably that would be okay, because they're women. Even so, how much of an asshole do you have to be to decree that what someone does with THEIR body is disrespectful towards YOU? Oh, and Scott has a tattoo.
Speaking of tattoos, Scott tells his son, Grant, that he wish Grant didn't have a tattoo of his dead sister's name near his heart, because he doesn't believe Grant could possibly care, since he hadn't even been born yet. ASSHOLE. Even worse, Scott says that Taylor, his daughter, also has a tattoo of the dead sister's name, but he's okay with that because he thinks Taylor is more spiritual. That is when I gave up reading.
I mean, Scott talks about crying when he finds out about his stillborn daughter. But if Grant couldn't possibly care because he wasn't born yet, then how can Scott care? He doesn't even remember her. But does Scott ever ponder this or reflect on his hypocrisy? Nope!
Scott is constantly furious with Grant because Grant is a drug addict, and although I understand this, I also wonder what it was like for Grant, having to grow up with Scott as a father. I would have done drugs, too. Scott sounds horrible. Just awful, possibly even emotionally abusive.
Then there was the money. Scott's wife doesn't work (of course) and the medical bills are piling up. They have four cars. And a yacht. And they are reluctant to sell any of it. Oh, they finally do, but reading about this privileged, rich family and how they didn't want to sell the car that they only used to drive to their yacht in California was maddening. Get some goddamn perspective.