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brogan7's review
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
reflective
sad
medium-paced
3.75
I was looking for a book about dementia I could read with my twelve year old son. This wasn't it. Chapter three describes a family telling their ten year old son that his grandmother died of spontaneous combustion, when in fact she burned to death in her bed while smoking. That they tried to make this into a joke (with a foot left behind) would just do my child in (having recently lost a grandmother, this would have been terribly upsetting to him).
The story was interesting, the characters pulled you along as a reader, and there was something tonally correct about each of them...the father, who has early onset Alzheimer's, the mother, a woman who experienced disfigurement after an accident involving a drunk driver, who is now faced with caretaking her husband, not always easily, the father's sister, who is helpful and funny but not always welcome, the neighbour, who is a babysitter to the boy, then also for the father, bit who is something of an everyday sadist, and, the main character, the boy, Foster, who is struggling as his family constellation is essentially shattering.
The emotional tension in the book is very real, but doesn't always resolve in ways....that would bring comfort to a young child (the mother's drinking? The consistent lack of attention the boy gets? The family dramas that don't come to a healing place, no one ever takes Foster up after a major family crisis...which feels real, but also curiously problematic in that, that little boy is suffering, he calls out for help, he acts out for help, and he eventually starts to dissociate, he's so desperate to be seen and acknowledged and taken care of. I don't know that the author fully considered the effects that much stress would have on a small child? He's probably not going to roll over and be fine, over and over again?
I guess I wanted the author to wrestle a little bit more with, what does it take to bring a child back from the edge of an imploding family system? What does it take for supports to come in and help when a family is in crisis like this?
I wanted a little less duress and a little more support for our protagonist, otherwise you're writing a real tragedy and that wasn't the point of this book.
Foster is a sensitive, intelligent boy, and he is ten years old. We want him to come out all right, but if he does, how does he do it? The book doesn't really explore this. What does Foster learn? What does a child in crisis who reads this book, learn?
That no one is reliable, that no help is coming? That when it's all too much you puff up your cheeks and say 'woof' and the plot resolves itself?
I wanted a little more.
The story was interesting, the characters pulled you along as a reader, and there was something tonally correct about each of them...the father, who has early onset Alzheimer's, the mother, a woman who experienced disfigurement after an accident involving a drunk driver, who is now faced with caretaking her husband, not always easily, the father's sister, who is helpful and funny but not always welcome, the neighbour, who is a babysitter to the boy, then also for the father, bit who is something of an everyday sadist, and, the main character, the boy, Foster, who is struggling as his family constellation is essentially shattering.
The emotional tension in the book is very real, but doesn't always resolve in ways....that would bring comfort to a young child (the mother's drinking? The consistent lack of attention the boy gets? The family dramas that don't come to a healing place, no one ever takes Foster up after a major family crisis...which feels real, but also curiously problematic in that, that little boy is suffering, he calls out for help, he acts out for help, and he eventually starts to dissociate, he's so desperate to be seen and acknowledged and taken care of. I don't know that the author fully considered the effects that much stress would have on a small child? He's probably not going to roll over and be fine, over and over again?
I guess I wanted the author to wrestle a little bit more with, what does it take to bring a child back from the edge of an imploding family system? What does it take for supports to come in and help when a family is in crisis like this?
I wanted a little less duress and a little more support for our protagonist, otherwise you're writing a real tragedy and that wasn't the point of this book.
Foster is a sensitive, intelligent boy, and he is ten years old. We want him to come out all right, but if he does, how does he do it? The book doesn't really explore this. What does Foster learn? What does a child in crisis who reads this book, learn?
That no one is reliable, that no help is coming? That when it's all too much you puff up your cheeks and say 'woof' and the plot resolves itself?
I wanted a little more.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Dementia
Moderate: Alcohol
Minor: Blood
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