Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC!

I wanted to love this book, or hate it because of the emotions it evoked, or just….I wanted to read it. But the fluid writing style that has very little structure….I just couldn’t do it. I love verse, I love structured writing, but this wasn’t quite either.

I really enjoyed the writing style and prose of memoir. It puts you in the shoes of the confused narrator trying to piece together his past.

I understand that this was written by a poet, and that probably explains a lot of the repetition, but I cannot fathom reading another 250 pages of this. The pace is way too slow and, as already mentioned, too repetitive.

Wow. What a powerful, beautiful, at times painful memoir. A kid kidnapped by his own white grandparents away from his black father to hide the “blackness” in the family. The neglect and abuse the kid’s suffered, things he was and wasn’t taught growing up, draw a bigger picture of racism and dysfunctional families. To think this is a real story and everything has happened to a little kid often hurts my heart. But I appreciate the author sharing such a unique and shocking story with the world.

I received an ARC of this book from Netgalley in exchange for my honest review.

REVIEW TO FOLLOW.

You’ve met the kind of storyteller who starts with a point then rabbit trails through asides, explanations, and mumbling second guesses about factual details, right? This book is a good version of that. Like when Shane describes his six-year-old self breaking into a house because a new friend thought it would be fun. He is committed to the plan, has snuck out, then contemplates the wisdom of this adventure with a meandering mind that reflects the porousness of memory. It works well when it works, and it does so in the younger years, which are tender and compelling memories of a child evolving in his realization that his grandparents both love and despise what he is, although they are willfully blind to the fact that their hatred of the other is hatred of their grandson. The impact fizzles a bit when Shane reaches his teenage years. His memories skim through skating and other issues most teenagers face but withhold on the deeper issues such as his decision to drop out of school and becoming a father at eighteen.

Shane is a poet and infuses his prose with conventions of that craft, which will lead to purposeful repetition and other techniques. You’ll want to keep that in mind if you pick up this interesting book. And you should pick it up if you want to experience a fresh approach and read the heartrending memories of a mixed race child whose white grandparents kidnap him to secret him away from his black father.

Thank you to Scribner and NetGalley for allowing me to read this eARC.

what can’t shane mccrae do?

ever since i read “the gilded auction block” i have been obsessed with mccrae’s poetic prowess. i have chosen to write about his poems for multiple classes in grad school. i am enamored with his affinity for word and line. what an honor it is to read this arc, i feel extremely grateful.

mccrae’s mother is white, and his father is black, and he was kidnapped by his white supremacist grandparents who erased his identity whilst simultaneously treating him poorly due to his race. shane mccrae writes in a poignant, restorative way as he recounts his childhood. elements of his skill in writing poetry are present, and they blend nicely with the autobiographical prose. what a memoir this is.

thank you so very much to netgalley and the publisher for an arc in exchange for an honest review. i adore you shane mccrae!