O.k., so I couldn't come up with even a remotely clever headline for this review.
As someone who grew up with a father who took his anger out on his family, I seem drawn to memoirs of bad dads. (See All Over But the Shoutin' by Rick Bragg).
Birkenhead tells in vivid detail his story of growing up with a gun-obsessed yet liberal father. The father in this memoir strikes me as a very complicated man. Throughout this engaging book, I got the feeling that there was a lot going on inside his head that no one could have known. However, this book is a masterful tale of what is going through the son's head while he tries to figure out the world around him.
The author was spared the brunt of the physical abuse, most of that going to his mother or three siblings. Birkenhead struggles with the why of that fact, finally guessing it is due to his ability to his skill at distracting his dad.
I don't like giving too many specific details from a book such as this. Suffice to say that if you like stories of families coming out the other end of tumultuous times, you will enjoy GONVILLE.
I know I did.
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