the_maxtasy 's review for:

I Was a Child by Bruce Eric Kaplan

3.0

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This memoir was an interesting one. Well written and with good use of literary tactics, this book resonated with me in ways fiction can't some of the things mentioned being relatable and others far from that. This book used no chapters, instead signifying the beginning of a new "topic" per se with a font change. This sometimes made transitions jarring but also seemed to have a deeper meaning, a representation of the life BEK was living at the time, as one second you'd be talking about TV shows and the next you're hearing about the death of a loved one. The writing was subtle, meaningful yet minimalist, and in a way, it assisted the overall message of the book, which was unfortunately sometimes unclear. Many of the emotional beats were effective, but sometimes when mentions of family occurred, the paragraph would be cut short and you'd be back to a less heartfelt anecdote (although all of them contributed to the overall messages of Familial Struggles, etc.). A lot of the formatting problems I had with this book are mostly due to the themes and stories this memoir was conveying, so my three-star review is far more subjective than objective, as I may have had trouble understanding the usage of some of these tactics.