Posted at Shelf Inflicted

The bold and colorful title and cover caught my eye at the library. I wasn’t sure I wanted to read another depressing memoir about homelessness, but since it took place in Boston, a city I’m quite familiar with, I decided to give it a go. There were some darkly humorous moments, as I’d expected from the title. Overall, this was a poignant, honest, and intense story about Nick Flynn’s relationship with his absent, alcoholic, and delusional father.

I learned after I started reading the book that Nick Flynn is a poet. This must explain his writing style, random scenes, and frequent jumping back and forth in time. It took me nearly half the book to warm up to Flynn’s style and start really caring about the characters.

There are lots of exquisite and evocative passages and inventive turns of phrase that I know will stay with me long after I return the book to the library, and I wish I could love this story more than I did. I wonder if it was the author’s style that made me feel distanced from the characters and kept me from empathizing with their situation until much later in the story.

Still, this unusual memoir is definitely worth reading.

This was a difficult book to get through for many reasons. First, it is a difficult story about son and negligent father. Next, the story lack little if any real positive or bright spots. The relationship that Flynn had with his mother might be counted as positive. I am used to reading difficult memoirs but this one I found to be bleak without much redemption (and I know that life doesn't always provide redemption) so reader be warned. A few of the chapters and some of the structure is difficult to follow. Finally, I continue to be dismayed at the use of profanity I find in almost every life story I read.

this book is about being noah—and his accursed son—and a life raft—and the atlantic ocean midwinter. it will live in my head forever.