Review: Perhaps a little unfair...
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 11 23, 2011
I would not call this book a memoir at all. Let me first get that off my chest. I was kind of annoyed after reading about half of it because it doesn't seem fair to me to even have memoir in the title. It's not a memoir, it's a book written from the author's dead brother's perspective in memoir form. But it's NOT a memoir.That's not to say it's a bad book. It was actually very well written and my heart ached for the author, his brother and the entire family. The main character (I want to say author here, but it's not - do you see my problem? *laughing*) is portrayed as snippy and self-important at times. I believe that the author (see, the author!) maybe still hasn't forgiven him for everything that has happened and it showed in his portrayal. Which is sad, but I also hope that by writing this book from his perspective, he was able to let go of some of that anger and sadness.The book itself is well written, I didn't see anything overly glaring that kept me from enjoying it. The writing flows nicely, but the tone can be biting at times. It's a hard read because you really already know how it ends - how it must end.We all have this person in our family. The one that's in trouble. The one that will end up dead if they don't change their ways. The one that you can't decide if you love or hate so you try to remain ambivalent. Knowing that and know that it had to have took amazing courage on Gregory's part made me really respect the author. I was left, however, wondering if he really did feel like he had taken a few days and lived in his brother's pants or if this was just a way of him getting out his own feelings? Hmmm...I think this is a great book for those that have that person in their family (which is darn near all of us these days) and also a fan of memoirs (even though *ahem* it is NOT a memoir).Note: a copy of this book was provided to me by the author