Jennings Michael Burch

(sigh) This is the third book in a week or something that I'm reading for the first time since I was a tween, and discovering that I didn't like it as an adult. Why I was assigned this in Advanced English in seventh grade, I don't know. This is the memoir of a kid who had a terrible few years in childhood of cycling in between abusive nuns in Catholic-sponsored group homes, with brief stays in abusive foster homes in between. I'm not sure what literary devices I gleaned from it at twelve. I don't even remember writing papers on it, but I do remember the teacher discussing it. The writing was both vivid and simplistic. It was written blandly as well, especially for a memoir. Somehow it's all three. There's a ton of stuff left out. Sibling relationships were described briefly, the mom's sickness was never explained, and Sal just kind of appears. The transitions in this book are nonexistent. Everything is bunched together or wrenched apart because the author doesn't know how to change settings or timelines smoothly. People are hardly described. The vivid writing is of emotions, food, and the violence Burch suffers from nuns who hate children, and schoolyard bullies. The epilogue wraps things up a little too neatly. Perhaps the weirdest thing was, I read this in paperback in seventh grade. It was a much slimmer volume. While I remembered nearly all of it, I'm wondering what was cut out from the school version and why, if anything. A lot of the abuse by the nuns was kept in. Maybe the typeset was just changed.… (altro)

I absolutely loved this book. The story of Jennings Michael Burch is both heart-wrenching and uplifting. The book vividly captures that sadness and anxiety that envelop a young boy who is shuffled between orphanages and foster homes. I found the narrative to be remarkably authentic. I know some reviewers have wondered aloud if the author embellished his experiences to make them even more harrowing than they were. Others have aptly noted that the writing is far from perfect. But the fact that Burch doesn't come off as a Faulkner, Hemingway or Steinbeck makes the book even more authentic. True, the emotional roller coaster ride readers experience as Jennings is bounced back and forth from his home to various facilities is draining. But that's the whole point. I can't recommend this book highly enough.… (altro)