(1/23/2008)
"Self-revelation without analysis or understanding becomes merely an embarrassment to both reader and writer." Quote from Judith Barrington.
I was hooked right from the start, but when I predicted what was about to happen in the U-haul part - that the door would fly open with a kid on it, I started to laugh. Either I am telepathic or something in the memoir wasn't right because I also wondered if we were going to have another shoot-out, and there was.
I stopped enjoying the book when I kept hearing myself say, "Really?" He has another car? He got away from the police again? They got into another school without papers? His family that took them in had enough food that night for all of them? Were they expecting them? She was resilient in one situation, but was a coward in another? The same goes for the mother? As the book went on, so did more questions. I had 100 pages left --I never finished reading it.
A memoir does not have to be exact in dates and/or conversations, but the events have to be real. I don't doubt that some were, but I too wondered about James Frey and the similarities...