It’s January 8 and I’ve already read two books! But they were both short. 😉 As someone who published a “short book,” I know how hard it is to include everything you want to say in a succinct way but, as Mark Twain said, “I didn’t have time to write a short letter, so I wrote a long one instead.” When I tell my students that it’s usually harder to write something shorter they look at me like I’m crazy until they actually have to do it – and that’s when the lightbulb goes off. There’s a reason less is more.
The two short books I read were A Kid From Marlboro Road by Edward Burns (the actor/director) and Foster by Claire Keegan. I never would have picked up these books but Christopher, my friendly neighborhood bookseller, suggested them and I usually like his suggestions. Although these books tell different stories, they both are told from the perspective of kids who are Irish Catholic, extremely smart and observant, and are experiencing difficulties at home. Additionally, both books take place over the course of very important summers for the respective protagonists.
Marlboro Road reads more like a memoir as our sweet, sensitive 12-year-old narrator Kneeney (his name is only mentioned two or three times) notices that his mother is sad all the time. He bleeds empathy because he’s so worried about his mom, doesn’t know why she is so sad, and wants to fix it but doesn’t know how. He loves spending time with her but wants to avoid getting teased by kids on the block and at school for being a “mama’s boy.” He repeatedly thinks about asking her what’s wrong but does not want to upset her more. He also wants to ask his dad but is afraid of the possible consequences. “I want to talk about mom. I want to ask why they don’t laugh together like they used to and why does she seem so sad all the time…But you can’t ask your dad that kind of stuff.” My heart breaks for him and his family. ❤️
Throughout the narrative, Kneeney mentions that he misses his former family dynamic – especially before his brother Tommy became a moody teenager and stopped participating in family dinners and activities – demonstrating his incredible intuition. He is extremely curious and conscious of the world around him. “It seems like every week, Tommy’s in trouble for something else…why am I always included in these lessons even when I didn’t do anything wrong?” He’s young, refreshing, and so green. It’s also clear that he’s going to be a writer which of course I love. On an Irish Catholic note, too many times he’s heard stories about how drinking ruins lives so he declares multiple times that he “is not gonna be a drinker who goes and breaks their mother’s heart.”
My biggest takeaway is how much the narrator worries about his mom, his undeniable perceptiveness, and how he carries the weight of the world (his family) on his shoulders at such a young age. Reading that broke my heart and got under my skin. Kids notice everything and that only gets truer as they get older. “Of course she remembers because she’s like me – she remembers everything.” He’s the definition of an old soul and this book represents a big summer of change. It’s also a reminder of how fast time flies.
Quotes:
“Who doesn’t love hometown heroes?”
“Last year for my birthday my dad got me a typewriter. That’s what happens when you win a poetry contest. Lucky me.”
“I don’t know much but I do know parents shouldn’t cry in front of their kids unless they’re at a funeral because it’s way too confusing and just plain scary to think about.”
“So I guess we’re even. Two liars on the way to church.”
Notes:
I love that his first introduction to rock and roll was the Rolling Stones’ Hot Rocks because that album features my favorite Stones song – “Gimme Shelter.”
A lot of the narrative is discussed in terms of streets, blocks, roads, and what is and what used to be. His mother is so nostalgic for the past that it’s making her depressed.
He sings the chorus of Cheap Trick’s “Surrender” which made me smile.
Foster author Claire Keegan packs a lot in 95 pages. In fact, she gets right to it from page one which immediately got my attention. There is so much writing out there with introductions that go on and on and sometimes spending so much time setting up a scene is unnecessary.
Similar to Marlboro Road, this story is about a summer of growth. Our protagonist is a young girl (whose name we never learn) who is inexplicably sent to another couple’s home for a few months while her own mother gives birth to another child. At first I thought I was missing something because that sounds insane, but that was the reason. Clearly it was another time. Apparent from the beginning was that this house is better than the one she comes from which, from the first few pages, made me think that she wasn’t going to want to return to her own home.
I don’t want to give any plot details away so I will talk more about the writing. Keegan is an absolute pro. She wastes zero words, sentences, paragraphs, or pages and yet tells a poignant story that was hard to put down. “It’s as though there’s a big piece of trouble stretching itself out in the back of his mind.” Brilliant stuff. The young girl’s insight is sweet and heartbreaking at the same time as she gets into the rhythm of the new (albeit short-term) home she’s living in where people actually pay attention to her. Similar to the narrator in Marlboro Road, she is observant, smart, and thoughtful. “I begin to settle and let the difference between my life at home and the one I have here be.” Although she is young, she’s perceptive enough to know that there are things she doesn’t understand but aware enough to realize that they matter.
Quotes:
“There are no secrets in this house, do you hear?”
“If you were mine, I’d never leave you in a house with strangers.”
“He just stands there, locked in the wash of his own speech.”
“A good woman can look far down the line and smell what’s coming before a man even gets a sniff of it.”
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