crabbygirl reviewed You better watch out by Greg Malone
Review of 'You better watch out' on 'Goodreads'
3 stars
it started strong then got bogged down in the too numerous details of his parent's families. about midway, it picked up again, when he was writing about his own experiences as a child and in grade school (and, likely, from the rich perspective of his own memories vs the memories of his father)
the most poignant chapter was about desperately wanting a certain truck for christmas and receiving one that was the utter opposite of all that was desired - and then having to pretend to like it and play with it, continually throughout the year. his last sentence caught my breath with his naked honesty for familial obligation:
my brothers and i, after long years of less-than-perfect pretense, came to be seen by Mom and Dad as ungrateful, a description we had to agree with and accept with guilt and shame, for Christmas moments not lived up to, and …
it started strong then got bogged down in the too numerous details of his parent's families. about midway, it picked up again, when he was writing about his own experiences as a child and in grade school (and, likely, from the rich perspective of his own memories vs the memories of his father)
the most poignant chapter was about desperately wanting a certain truck for christmas and receiving one that was the utter opposite of all that was desired - and then having to pretend to like it and play with it, continually throughout the year. his last sentence caught my breath with his naked honesty for familial obligation:
my brothers and i, after long years of less-than-perfect pretense, came to be seen by Mom and Dad as ungrateful, a description we had to agree with and accept with guilt and shame, for Christmas moments not lived up to, and for Christmas moments we had not really had.