This sounds like the kind of book meant to strike fear into children or history classes, but is actually an incredibly vivid and touching collection of stories about growing up in poverty. The book is brimming with colourful details of hardship that make walking uphill to school through snowdrifts seem positively idyllic:
shirt made from a Robin Hood flour sack? check.
Ice-fishing for eel with grandpa? check.
scowling, wealthy Catholic priest? check.
The stories are nearly so over the top they seem unbelievable. Fortunately, they are told with a wry, bittersweet humor and that doesn’t fall over into sentimentality.
Given comic artist and writer Seth’s involvement (the stories are his father’s), I was expecting the book to be presented entirely in comic or graphic novel fashion, as in Chester Brown’s Louis Riel, but this wasn’t the case. It does contain an illustrated introduction, and occasional drawings which support the writing. However, the focus of the book is the remarkable stories, documenting the difficulties and occasional joys of growing up in hardscrabble circumstances. Most stories are 2 or 3 short pages, so this is a very quick read. While I’m glad this wasn’t my childhood, a part of me still wishes I knew how to snare rabbits for stew when I was 8.*
*book includes diagram.
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