Every awful thing

by LizaL33 on May 8, 2008

This dude has some SERIOUS baggage! Though well-written, due to its subject matter the book is terribly hard to read. Daddy-issues, mommy-issues, depression, addiction, suicide, and homelessness are just a few of the themes here.

Nick Flynn is well-regarded as a poet, and much of this memoir reads like a lovely prose poem, particularly the chapter entitled "Same Again." He goes off the rails a bit, however, with a chapter near the end of the book which is written ostensibly as a play in the model of King Lear, but with all the characters as homeless men dressed as Santa Clause.

I read this for my book club, and am glad I read it, but I wouldn't read it again and would definitely think twice before recommending it to others.