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13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Touched a personal note with me, July 20, 2009
This is my first Joe Queenan book. I'd like to read more. Closing Time is not refreshing, nor is it delightful. Anyone who has had to deal with an alcoholic in the family can relate to the author's love-hate relationship with his father. Other reviews have chastized Queenan for being self-serving and of not seeing any good in his father. Quite the contrary, I think Queenen does a good job of trying to find some good to wrap around his father's memory. It is obvious that Queenan owes his love of language and reading to his father, and gives him credit for such. And in a perverse way, Queenan's retreating into books as an escape became, in part, his salvation. The book holds a particular interest for me. I grew up in that neighborhood about 10 years before Joe. I left just as the neighborhood began to change, in the early 60's, but this book rang true to the personalities, the sounds, the catch-phrases, and the mind set of the place. As a Protestant, I remember being very jealous of the Catholic girls at St.Benedict's because they got to wear white dresses and veils for the May procession. I can also remember my mother chastising me for walking home from school with a "colored boy", and telling me to be carefule of Eye-talians". As appalling as that sounds now, it was what it was. Some reviewers seem to take offense that Queenan is so hard on his father, only assigning blame. I wonder what book they were reading. I think the author gives quite a number of people in his life credit for having set him on a track other than the one he might have traveled. That includes his father. Is he bitter, and can he be scathing with respect to some of his father's peccadillos? You betcha, but having lived with an alcoholic parent, I can relate. My impression is that the very exercise of writing this book was a catharsis. Reading it has been the same. This has not been an easy book for me to read; I usually whip through a book in a day, but I'm trying to make this one last. The author's command of language is astounding, and at times a little too over-the-top. Were he in a conversation with me, I would be tempted to tell him: "get over yourself, already". On the other had, those words allow him to say exactly THE right thing -- paint the perfect picture. Use a dictionary if you need to. Glory in those words! Your English teacher would be proud of you.
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15 of 18 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
RICK "SHAQ" GOLDSTEIN SAYS: "ONE FAMILIES QUAKER CITY CONCENTRATION CAMP.", April 26, 2009
This is a memoir of a stark loveless abusive childhood that is centered in Philadelphia. Where most children wake up in the morning and can't wait to go outside and play... the author and his sisters woke up and hoped their Father was dead. And while these brutal belt buckle beatings were administered by the Father upon his young children... the Mother hid in her room behind stacks of newspapers... seemingly oblivious to the thrashings taking place outside her bedroom door. In addition to the beatings... alcohol fueled dissertations on subjects that ranged from politics... to religion... to conspiracy theories... through all hours of the night... were at times spoken to captive children dragged out of bed... and in later years... when the author would barricade himself inside his room with a knife in his shoe under his bed... the Father would speak to imaginary guests. "MY FATHER GOT BROKEN WHEN HE WAS YOUNG, AND HE NEVER GOT FIXED. HE MAY HAVE WANTED TO BE A GOOD FATHER, A GOOD HUSBAND, A GOOD MAN, BUT HE WAS NOT CUT OUT FOR THE JOB. HE LIKED TO DRINK." The author is at his best in two modes... when he summarizes a situation... and when he provides a character study that combines "street-sense" and humor. An example is his succinct summary through a poor families eyes foretelling soon-to-be trouble in paradise: "WE HATED TO SEE HIM START DRINKING, BECAUSE AS SOON AS HE OPENED THAT FIRST BOTTLE OF BEER WE REALIZED THAT HE HAD ALREADY GIVEN UP ON THE DAY." He makes it blatantly clear that his family did not mirror the idealistic families portrayed on TV. "OUR FIFTIES FAMILY LIFE BORE NO RESEMBLANCE TO THE WORLD OF LUCY AND RICKY RICARDO OR WARD AND JUNE CLEAVER. WARD DID NOT BEAT HIS CHILDREN WITH THE BUCKLE OF HIS LEATHER BELT. RICKY DID NOT DRINK BOILERMAKERS ALL NIGHT WHILE HIS FAMILY WENT HUNGRY. LUCY DID NOT SUFFER FROM MANIC DEPRESSION. JUNE COULD COOK." Being that Queenan did not have a positive role model as a Father figure he tried to find a surrogate Father wherever he could. Living... or dead. The most enjoyable part of this otherwise bleak saga... are the chapters involving two of the aforementioned Father figures... one was Len Mohr a former Marine who owned a clothing store and hired a young Queenan and took him under his wing. A steady stream of life's dilapidated characters flowed in and out of Len's store... and Len handled them all with aplomb. The author loved the way real "men-of-the-world-men-about-town" talked: "HE TOOK THE FIVE FINGER DISCOUNT... HE'S STILL WET BEHIND THE EARS... HE GOT CAUGHT PLAYING A TUNE ON THE CASH REGISTER"... and their savvy acumen: "THEY KNEW ALL ABOUT SKID ROW. THEY COULD IMMEDIATELY ASCERTAIN WHO WAS A LITTLE LIGHT IN THE LOAFERS, WHO WAS NOT PLAYING WITH A FULL DECK, WHO WAS A PUNCH-DRUNK LOLLAPALOOZA, AND WHO WAS MOST LIKELY TO TAKE A DIVE. THEY LIKED GRITTY CARBUNCLE IN THE FIFTH AT AQUEDUCT, THOUGH ONLY TO PLACE, AND WERE SURE AS SHOOTIN' THAT SUGAR RAY ROBINSON WOULD TAKE OUT KID GAVILAN WITH JUST ONE PUNCH, BECAUSE GAVILAN WAS A TIN CAN, IF NOT AN OUTRIGHT PALOOKA, WHO COULDN'T FIGHT HIS WAY OUT OF A PAPER BAG AND WAS, IN ANY CASE, SO SKINNY HE HAD TO COME OUT TWICE JUST TO MAKE HIS OWN SHADOW." *"LEN USED THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE LIKE A GUN RACK FROM WHICH HE COULD SELECT THE WEAPON BEST SUITED TO INCAPACITATING THE PREY AT HAND."* There is much more darkness than light in this memoir that follows the author from the projects... to religious training... and a short lived desire to be a priest... with the only reason for considering the priesthood being an escape from his Father for whom he wished nothing but death... to his college education and career as a writer. At times this chronicle is hard to read simply because of the absence of even the minimal love of a child that this world should surely... but doesn't always... provide.
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8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Painful Insights, November 13, 2009
A painful account of an abusive childhood, which the author manages to transcend and survive at substantial emotional cost. Severely burdened and emotionally scarred by a Father from Hell, Queenan takes us through the various stages of his life--complete with guilt, anger and efforts to understand. Because I found the narrative very slow and dreary to begin with, I started thumbing and skimming to the middle, where the action picked up considerably. My interest piqued, I then skimmed backwards to fill in the details. A circuitous way of reading, but satisfying in the end.
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