I had never heard of Jo Ann Beard or her critically acclaimed memoir The Boys of My Youth or her most famous essay, "The Fourth State of Matter" (on the 1991 University of Iowa shootings), until March 2015. I picked it up because I was in the mood to binge-read as many memoirs as possible. I found a list through a Google search and went down the list: Angela's Ashes. Check. Another Bullshit Night in Suck City. Check. Maus. Check. Fun Home. Check. The Glass Castle. Mark to read later. And then The Boys of My Youth.The title is misleading. The entire memoir is actually a collection of autobiographical essays in which only one, the last one, is titled "The Boys of My Youth." Nevertheless, the whole collection works very well as a memoir. Before I read Jo Ann Beard's memoir, I was actually debating whether to read hers or Jeannette Walls's The Glass Castle. I quickly read the first few pages of each. Walls's memoir seemed to be about her homeless mother and I had just read Nick Flynn's Another Bullshit Night in Suck City which featured Flynn's homeless dad, so I wasn't in the mood to read another memoir about a homeless parent. So, The Boys of My Youth. I loved it immediately. The first essay, "In the Current," described a scene in which a group of teenage boys are swept downstream in a river. They fly by Jo Ann as she watches them helplessly. Later, they are rescued. One of the rescued teenage boys is helped up and escorted to safety:"Oh man," he says when he sees me. "I saw her go by about ninety miles an hour!" He stops and points at me. I just stand there, embarrassed to be noticed by a teenager. I hope my shorts aren't bagging out again. I put one hand in my pocket and slouch sideways a little. "Man, I thought she was gonna be the last thing I ever seen!" he says, shaking his head.What is stunning about this passage is that Beard comingles a most remarkable observation ("Man, I thought she was gonna be he last thing I ever seen!") with a most self-consciously narcissistic one typical of teens (He stops and points at me. I just stand there, embarrassed to be noticed by a teenager.)The entire book is sprinkled with such observations. The ridiculous and the surprisingly poignant and the most embarrassingly truthful. (At Grandma and Ralph's wedding ceremony a man sang opera-style, which took the children by surprise and caused an uproar among the grandchildren. -- "Bonanza") Beard also manages to make me pause and think back to my own childhood as she shares common ground observations: In "Cousins," the family attends a wedding reception. At one point, Our mothers are in the midst of a line dance, doing their own version of the Hustle, out of synch with everyone else. Their work is done, they've mingled, they've been fairly polite. And whoosh, I can't help but reflect back on my own childhood at our own family gatherings and realize that my own mother and aunts and adult cousins are there working and putting on their game face and it's all part of a complex dance of social politeness.The most famous essay is "The Fourth State of Matter." I like "Bonanza," "Cousins," "Coyote," and "Bulldozing the Baby" more but can't choose a favorite among them. They're all so wonderful.
I was already blown away by the quality of this collection when, near the end, I discovered that the writer grew up in Moline, IL (just a hop and skip from where I live). What the WHAT? A few months ago, I read (and enjoyed) an essay, "Behind the Screen," (about a little girl and her family on the Fourth of July), on a blog about a genre called flash memoir. A week or two later, I picked up The Boys of My Youth at a local bookstore mainly because I liked the title and because the copy was on sale for $3. It wasn't 'til I was several essays in that I realized I was reading the same author who I'd just been impressed by on that blog. (Serendipity? Or my subconscious leading me? Either way: kinda cool.)Almost immediately, the author's voice was intense and stirring. Still, when I first started the collection, I was a little uneasy about the fact that childhood events were remembered with a level of detail as if they truly happened yesterday. (In some essays, "childhood" meaning "still in the crib." The critic in me kept saying, "You remember that much about a time in your life when you were still in diapers?")But soon, I was mesmerized by the level of detail--whether remembered, imagined, or a mixture of both--and the emotional intensity of moments as small as losing a doll, to as tragic as losing her mother, told with absolute precision. In "The Fourth State of Matter," Beard writes about a tragic episode in Iowa City, interwoven with the breakdown of her marriage, surely never to be forgotten by anyone who reads it. This is, simply, some amazing writing. (And OMG the author is from Moline! Quad Cities represent'!)
What do You think about The Boys Of My Youth (1999)?
'The Boys of My Youth' is a memoir written through a collection of essays. The narrative is not linear and I enjoyed the shifting timeline and her overall writing style. The strongest chapters were Fourth Side of the Matter (recalling a horrific workplace incident) and a chapter written about her being followed in her car in the south (frightening). Without question, these sections were 5/5 stars. For the most part, I enjoyed the sections written about her childhood but her adult sections (excluding the ones noted above) that focused on her deteriorating marriage didn't grip me. I never felt like I really understood her as an adult person (this could also be a result of the disjointed narrative). There were also a few sections that I hated, like Coyote, which I ended up skimming because it was so boring. Overall, I liked this. I would certainly recommend certain chapters to people. Grade: 3/5
—Christine
Everyone loves this book. No one writes bad reviews of this book. The Boys of My Youth is Jo Ann Beard’s only book to date. Everyone is right. The book is amazing, but I am going to tell you what I did not like about the book.Beard’s descriptions of childhood are just too well done. While reading them, memories of your own childhood bubble up. And not just the good memories, but also the memories that sting, the memories you thought were gone.And really, as you are reading the book, she flits around in time. You really don’t have any idea what she is doing, until your bathwater is past its prime temperature, and you are still in the water trying to finish the book. You read that last line and it all comes together: this is a book about the end of her youth. You get it finally. She has described for you what growing up means, as though you have never done it.Finally, I really don’t like the cover. I suppose it is a photo of a child’s bed. I would have done something different, but the different idea is not coming to me.The book was published in 1998 and I must say, she needs to publish another book. I mean really people.
—Harkinna
For a book that I approached with the intention on learning how to write a little bit better (mostly on the description of emotion) I was pleasantly surprised. Jo Ann Beard makes poignant, oftentimes in one sentence, indications of the people she has met in her life. She even goes so far as to, in the last chapter, intone about the book and the people to whom she must speak to about the book.What lies within the cover is a collection of short stories, jumping back and forth between Beard's adult and younger life. Although her focus is on the males in her life, whether it be a male doll when she was a kid, her father, or a lover, she also describes those in her life that were female. It's a delicate tale, but faced with a lot of courage to bear open some of her inner demons, emotions, and mistakes.Although she details on how to be human, a facet often not easily captured, this was not the most compelling of stories. Don't get me wrong, I was engaged and curious about her tale. However, I was not unable to put it down or set it aside or to think of other things, such as her quality of writing while reading. I wish I could give half stars, and for that I might have depleted just a half, but c'est la vie. And before everyone shakes their finger at me for being mean towards a personal tale, it's also extremely feminist at times. It can, therefore, be a bit oppressive towards a male audience or an audience, such as myself, who is not so geared towards feminism.Don't let such a minor mishap get you down. This book is a keeper. It's an easy read, her writing is always poetic, and worth the time, the money, and the emotional burden.
—Diane
