gsher002's review against another edition
some very strong visceral shorts but just lost me and began to drag. I can feel myself coming back to this at some point but for now i’m just not there
hannahsakura's review against another edition
4.0
Be prepared for lots of death! Every story here was beautiful — my favorites were What You Seek Is Seeking You and Festival Days. Cheri was like the saddest thing I’ve ever read and I haven’t cried from reading in some time. Jo Ann Beard makes me want to write again!!
earlyandalone's review against another edition
5.0
This book destroyed me, both making me cry with emotion and because I was so angry that Jo Ann Beard can write like this. Both in "Werner" and "Cherie," she inhabits the lives and interiority of two strangers so totally that we believe everything she writes completely. Not only that, we feel like we know them, too. She also writes about animals with more empathy and insight than any other writer I've ever read.
beckyblake's review against another edition
5.0
Jo Ann Beard brilliantly captures the all-time-ness of memory and consciousness. This writing feels associative, yet deeply considered; it hums and transports; it accrues and accumulates, blazing a trail of meaning along the fiction/nonfiction borders it patrols...
huncamuncamouse's review against another edition
4.0
The Boys of My Youth is one of my favorite books and it’s the best collection of essays I’ve ever read. I was thrilled to see that Beard was publishing a new collection this year. However, it very much felt cobbled together with no real through-line. The craft essays were just okay, and the two fiction pieces, while enjoyable, were really out of place. The two stars, here, “Cheri” and “Festival Days” are nothing short of stunning, however. The latter is one of the best essays I’ve read in a very long time.
whativebeanreading's review against another edition
4.0
This one landed hard and will stay with me for a long time. Genre defying, it blurs the line between essays and short stories, and addresses themes of loss and death with power and insight. I don’t think I’ve ever read any book, memoir or novel, that captures so piercingly how memories collapse on one another and fleeting moments can haunt us for the rest of our lives.
dannb's review against another edition
4.0
Sometimes painfully sad. So many perfectly crafted sentences. As non-linear as life is.