I really, really wanted to love this book. It’s a memoir with diverse representation and dogs! I love dogs. Unfortunately, the writing is uneven. The author skips around in time in a way that is jerky and leaves you wondering where you’re at it in the timeline of her life. She also references things in the past that have been talked about earlier in the book but in such a way that several times I had to stop and go, “wait, who?” It doesn’t flow.
I know that Ms. Finney Boylan has written another memoir published in 2003. It makes me wonder if the nonlinear writing style is her attempt not to rehash the material in her first book. There were also several passages where she breaks off from the narrative entirely to defend herself or her choices or her basic humanity. To me at least they all seemed unnecessary.
There were passages that were really moving— particularly having to do with the author’s relationship with her family. There just weren’t enough of those.
I know that Ms. Finney Boylan has written another memoir published in 2003. It makes me wonder if the nonlinear writing style is her attempt not to rehash the material in her first book. There were also several passages where she breaks off from the narrative entirely to defend herself or her choices or her basic humanity. To me at least they all seemed unnecessary.
There were passages that were really moving— particularly having to do with the author’s relationship with her family. There just weren’t enough of those.