Helpful Score: 5
This book was on my wishlist for a long time. I was glad to finally have it in my page turning hands. I'm not sure now, if I really enjoyed the book all that much. Some nights I was held captive by the gritty, true life memoir of Nick Flynn and his homeless/alcoholic dad. Other nights I was glad I was sleepy, giving me an excuse to put the book down. A mixed bag. I am left with so many questions, it is like I walked into a movie a half hour late, or left before the ending, or both. I thought this book would be as good or better than "The Glass Castle" but sadly, it was not. BUT... worth the read anyway. It is unique.
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Helpful Score: 3
An interesting read about a young man working in a homeless shelter and dealing with his father's homelessness. Tells the story of his growing up in Boston.
Helpful Score: 2
Memoir of a young man working as a caseworker in a homeless shelter when he met his father who was a client in the shelter. Well written. Named one of the New York Public Library's Top 25 Books in 2004. Winner of the Pen/Martha Albrand Award for Memoirs.
Helpful Score: 1
I found this book rather lacking in insight. It's an interesting story, of course - what do you do when your own father shows up at the homeless shelter that you work at? But the author reacts like a teenager, so caught up in his own embarassment and anger at his father for putting him in this situation that he can't spare a second's empathy for the guy. He's too immature to either help the situation and or to stand back and ask someone with a healthier attitude to step in, so he just goes on self-destructive drinking binges. I know we all act irrationally around family, but this guy just seems to be wallowing in spiteful anger and blaming his own self-absorbtion on his absentee dad.