The Autumn Balloon by Kenny Porpora
I happen to love a good memoir because real life can be so much more interesting than fiction. When I saw a 4 star review for The Autumn Balloon, I thought I was in for a real treat.
Kenny is a kid who wants to fit in, but how can he, when he's shuffled from one alcoholic, drug addicted parent to the other. He's often homeless, living in the backseat of his mother's car. When she loses custody, Kenny and his brother end up in their father's filthy basement with a pig and a pedophile living upstairs. When the custody battle heats up again, the boys return to their mother in Arizona. I don't want to forget to mention, that every other word out of their mother's mouth begins with an "F". Donna Reed, she is certainly not.
That Kenny was able to lift himself out of this situation is nothing short of a miraculous. He graduated from Columbia with a master's degree in journalism. I admire him for that. But did I feel this book was worthy of a top review? No.
The Autumn Balloon is filled with heartache and emotion. It paints a powerful picture of poverty and addiction in our country, which often go hand in hand. As a writer myself, I felt however, the story construction was too simple, unpolished and paced too quickly. I raced through it, unable to linger in the pain as well as the joy. The Autumn Balloon tells a story of life that should be told. I didn't however, find that it was written in a way that merits the glowing reviews that initially caught my eye.
I happen to love a good memoir because real life can be so much more interesting than fiction. When I saw a 4 star review for The Autumn Balloon, I thought I was in for a real treat.
Kenny is a kid who wants to fit in, but how can he, when he's shuffled from one alcoholic, drug addicted parent to the other. He's often homeless, living in the backseat of his mother's car. When she loses custody, Kenny and his brother end up in their father's filthy basement with a pig and a pedophile living upstairs. When the custody battle heats up again, the boys return to their mother in Arizona. I don't want to forget to mention, that every other word out of their mother's mouth begins with an "F". Donna Reed, she is certainly not.
That Kenny was able to lift himself out of this situation is nothing short of a miraculous. He graduated from Columbia with a master's degree in journalism. I admire him for that. But did I feel this book was worthy of a top review? No.
The Autumn Balloon is filled with heartache and emotion. It paints a powerful picture of poverty and addiction in our country, which often go hand in hand. As a writer myself, I felt however, the story construction was too simple, unpolished and paced too quickly. I raced through it, unable to linger in the pain as well as the joy. The Autumn Balloon tells a story of life that should be told. I didn't however, find that it was written in a way that merits the glowing reviews that initially caught my eye.
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