Review: A touching memorial
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 03 5, 2014
It feels inordinately petty to nitpick a son’s loving biography of his father, but the nits in question are pervasive and significantly hindered my enjoyment of what is otherwise a moving recollection.I was touched by the author’s desire to immortalize these memories of his father, in no small part because I lost my own father four months ago.  As a memorial, as a way to keep Big Phillip’s memory alive and share it with others, ‘Grandfather’s Uncle’ succeeds.  The anecdotes presented are poignant and often humorous, thankfully without candy coating or whitewashing Big Phillip’s occasional rough edges.  This aspect of the book is excellent, and I would gladly recommend it for that.My biggest issue is with the author’s decision to mark words and phrases Big Phillip was fond of by putting them in bold letters.  Having these pop out at random, sometimes several to a page, made reading difficult.  Try as I might, I couldn’t make myself ignore or read past them.  The distraction these bolded words caused was significant, and that’s the only reason  I’m giving it four stars instead of five.