Customer Reviews

Another Chance to Get It Right (2nd Edition) (Bk. 1)

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Read anything by Andrew Vachss--novels, short stories, comics--and you get the picture: Vachss is the antithesis of the Sensitive New Age Guy. It's a sure bet the latest book review will contain some variation of 'Vachss makes [fill in favorite 'noir' or 'hardboiled' author here] look like [Emily Post...a sewing circle...the minutes of a Cub Scout meeting...etc. etc. etc.].'

Another Chance to Get it Right--a 'children's book for adults'--is an altogether different literary critter.

In a series of vignettes (with illustrations by noted graphic artists including Paul Chadwick, Geof Darrow, Gary Gianni and others), Vachss presents truths both blunt and bright about the common experiences--and the great diversity--of children and childhood.

If you think Vachss is 'too dark,' this is the perfect starter book to blast your preconceptions. The text is concise and eloquent, and shows a tenderness perhaps unexpected to fans of the Burke novels, while the accompanying art provides an occasionally whimsical, always powerful complement.

If you have the chance to get this book...DO IT.

This book is a beautiful set of stories and essays about how to protect children from abuse. Given the subject matter, it would be easy to pass this book by. It's easy to hold the preconception that there is nothing more that can be said about child abuse, or that there is nothing we can do to stand against it.

Nothing can be further from the truth, and Mr. Vachss proves it with prose so clean and direct that it reads like the sparest poetry. I've read this book with my own children, and it has given them an understanding and sympathy that will serve them well all their days. DON'T MISS OUT ON THIS BOOK!

Every person who ever wants to have children of their own by blood, or the more saintly act of adopting those children who need the love of someone who cares... needs to read this book. I have given a copy to everyone I know who has ever had children, including my Mother.

Having met Mr. Vachss and told him my acts of spreading his insights, wisdom, and warnings, he was delightfully pleased at my efforts.

Every word in this book is placed perfectly. Not a phrase can be misconstrued. In its execution of prose, there is none in literature refined more to an essence of purpose than in these 64 pages. Each vignette is more poignant than the last.

The artwork is extremely appropriate and offers enough to attract you, draw you in , and keep you connected to each story or lesson. Each artistic compliment has a specific merit to the story they accompany. Pay special attention to the "artistic focus effects" from Geof Darrow (Pgs 26-43). They are a masterpiece than should be studied.

My personal favorites in thew collection of prose and pencil/pen are pgs 8-10, and 48-51. One speaks on the philospohical scale of children as a future and past; and the other is far more personal to the author and reader. Both will leave the interested reader with a great deal of introspection. But the lessons learned within will affect how the reader thinks and acts around children. Those they know and love, and those they will never know, and never suspect, are hurting.

This is a simple book, with a simple premise and wonderful illustrations. It is written in the clear and honest prose for which Vachss is so well known. It also hits home with every story. If you want to know what honor, courage, and love look like, this is your book. Most books, I lend; this one, I buy multiple copies and give them away, over and over again.