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When voice and perspective are unvarying, there's no sense of context, and I'm still old-fashioned enough to think that every good piece of writing needs one.Augusten Burroughs' writing has the same effect on me: it's told from such a sterile and distant place that I can only relate to the occurrences from afar. I read about 30 pages of "Blackbird" and put it down; I almost didn't start again, but decided it just had to pick up before long. I was aware of the poignancy of the things that were happening, and undoubtedly felt sincere sympathy that anyone should have to go through what she did; but it was intellectual sympathy. The problem is that it never changes, even as she grows older. And while she may have indeed been intellectually and emotionally frozen all that time, and who could blame her one iota, it does not make for the most engaging writing. The problem was her writing style. Clearly the author had an unusual life, with more than her share of tragedy, and I would have found the facts about it interesting and poignant had I read them in a news or magazine article.
It was clear and coherent, but it was also, for me, amazingly flat. To borrow from the film "Beetlejuice," it read like stereo instructions, or perhaps like a journal kept by a high school-aged girl for a creative writing class. This title was rec'ed for me after I purchased "The Glass Castle," which I found to be a well-written and moving memoir. This explained a lot, and here's my take on what's "dangerous" about it: if you never leave the present tense and report entirely on the surface, it may be therapeutic for you and it may give a basic coherence to your narrative, but it lacks the poetry and emotion that provide depth and perspective, and unite you with your reader. The flat reporting style almost works in the very beginning as she tells about her earliest memories. Her five-year-old "voice" is too old to be realistic and her 12-year-old (or whatever age she is at the book's end) "voice" is too young. That much about her did indeed come across. but I don't imagine Lauck would care much for a pity-review.
I finished it in one more sitting, waiting the entire time for the story to engage me, which it never did. There's no magic in the words that compels me to really enter into the experience with the writer.Obviously his books sell very well, and many people love them - and judging by the bulk of the other reviews here, the same is true of "Blackbird." But it really didn't work for me as a successful memoir - it was an astonishingly flat read and I have to say I wouldn't reread it or recommend it. The author's style made her seem so disconnected from the events of her life that I ultimately was, too."I opened the door.I saw this happen.Then that happened.My eyes traveled over there, and I saw that.I left the room.I knew I would never feel the same again."That was the tone for the entire book. At first I thought it was just plain bad writing, which does indeed make the best seller list with surprising frequency.Then I read the Q & A with the author in the "Reader's Guide" appendix, where she discusses the "dangerous writing" technique. I feel somewhat like Attila the Hun for saying this ("Okay, you had a hard life, but you needed to tell it with more *feeling*). :-)
I really enjoyed this book and blew through it in a few days. My only complaint (and why I didn't give it 5 stars) was that I feel the author made herself wayyy to smart for her age throughout the book. It was a memoir, so maybe she was smart, but I just felt that the way she portrayed herself in the book was always smarter and more quick witted than the majority of kids her age are.Other than that the book was great. I would definitely recommend it.
This book took me completely by surprise. I'm glad that I found it. Found it in my small local library while just browsing and looking for something different. It was soo wonderful. Talks of the author's childhood, if you can call it that. Recommending it to many.
Moving her furniture will never go out of my head and how Deb treats her clean to the end, is so pitiful, that I would like to find her and let her know how cruel, self centered and pathethic person she was in Jennifer's life. I easily put myself in her place, since my childhood was so dysfunctional and it too, seemed like no-one even noticed or was aware of my plight to survive. Jennifer Lauck's story "Blackbird", is an easy read, except for all the emotions it stirred up. This was a hard book to put down and I am glad I read it, knowing that it was all true. I was lucky though, to have a fantastic mother living under the same conditions and we stuck together. Jennifer's life was so sad; imagine feeling like no-one loves you or even cares. Much better writing than most books I come across. God loves you, Jennifer, and in the end, that is all that counts.
When another tragedy befalls the Lauck family, things go from bad to worse. Told through the perspective of the child that she was, Jennifer tells of the harrowing six years of her life from the ages of 5 to 11.Five year old Jennifer is living with her parents and older brother Bryan. Blackbird is the story of Jennifer Lauck's childhood, which is reflected in the sub-title- A Childhood Lost and Found. Although there is some abuse in the book, it is far more psychological than physical and quite disturbing. It is obvious that Janet, Jennifer's mother is in the end stages of a long illness, and Jennifer takes care of her mom as best she can at her young age. In the course of time Janet Lauck passes away, and the children are left with their father, a kind but overwhelmed man; he quickly remarries a woman with children of her own, who obviously does not care for Jennifer or Bryan at all. The indomitable spirit of Jennifer to keep on going, despite it all, is what lifts this book from maudlin to inspiring. The child's eye view of the adult world is heartbreaking at times, but you will care about this little girl and root for her right until the end, hoping someone or something good comes her way.
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