Customer Reviews

Cursed by a Happy Childhood: Tales of Growing Up, Then and Now

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Recently, as the result of a number of circumstances, I've been woolgathering about the past, specifically my childhood and teenage years. Maybe I've spent too much time on it, but it's something I've needed to do. It is somewhat ironic then that CURSED BY A HAPPY CHILDHOOD should be published now. After reading it for the last few hours I've felt as if Carl Lennertz, its author, has been tapping into my thoughts. I'm sure I won't be alone in feeling this way.

CURSED BY A HAPPY CHILDHOOD is Lennertz's first published work. It consists of short pieces, most of them no more than 2-3 pages in length, which began as a kind of diary for his preteen daughter. The result is a mix of childhood memoirs from the 1950s and 1960s, observations and advice. One of its many strengths is its simplicity; you don't have to be a rocket scientist to read Lennertz. You do, however, have to pay attention. Lennertz has a conversational style that is closer to listening to a friend discuss a far-off yet familiar land than a lecture from an elder about what's what. Another of Lennertz's strengths is his lack of pretension. He realizes that while things may be different "now" from the way they were "then," there are valuable life lessons that are as applicable in the present as they were in the past.

I had so many favorite pieces in CURSED BY A HAPPY CHILDHOOD that I can't mention them all. Of the ones that hit home the hardest, I probably laughed the most at "The Great Books Versus the Great Comic Books" because of a conversation I had recently with a friend. He asked me who I considered to be the best authors. I listed Thomas Wolfe, William Faulkner, Cormac McCarthy and Larry Brown. He laughed and told me he doubted that he would be reading any of them since he no longer read "homework" books. Lennertz doesn't go quite that far, but he does advise his daughter to put the serious stuff aside occasionally and escape. There's nothing wrong with that at all. I also enjoyed the nuggets that Lennertz drops throughout the book, such as "Show up, be on time and do your best" and "If those around you are bringing you down, move on." Words to live by!

Lennertz, as a bit of lagniappe, intersperses the text with photographs of 45 r.p.m. record labels that, if you are of a certain age, will have you both drooling and misty-eyed and that will add to, rather than interrupt, the flow of his narrative. Taken in its entirety, CURSED BY A HAPPY CHILDHOOD is by turns instructional and entertaining, a work that parents and children can buy for each other. I do have a minor quibble, however. The only piece in the book that I took serious issue with was a whimsical list entitled "Ten Things That Would Make Me A Cooler Dad." Carl, you wrote your daughter a book --- you can't get much cooler than that.

--- Reviewed by Joe Hartlaub

How can you not pick up a book with a title this great? And what a blessed relief it is to finally read a memoir in which the author has not spent half his life on a therapist's couch because of something his parents may have said to him when he was five years old!
Author Carl Lennertz has written a marvelous collection of wise and witty essays that compare his near-idyllic childhood in a small town on Long Island in the 1960's to the hurly-burly of raising a young pre-teen daughter in present-day New York City. For anyone who grew up in America during the 1960's, this book contains a veritable cornucopia of immediately recognizable impressions, experiences and events from that memorable era. And anyone who has ever been (or plans to be) a parent will find comfort, laughter and pure delight in Lennertz's often hilarious (and instructive) conclusions about the fine art of childrearing.
Lennertz sometimes rants but he never whines, and the rants are invariably amusing and frequently insightful. He often concentrates on the smaller joys in life -- the delights of eating corn on the cob, of spending a day at the beach, of bodysurfing the perfect wave, of afternoons spent exploring on bicycle, of going to that first big league baseball game. He reminds us of the "particular and peculiar pleasure of moving a record player arm up and over, of putting the needle down, just so, at the edge of a large vinyl disk, and of hearing that slight hiss in the thin slice of time before the first song."
In the end, it is the wholesome small town values that Lennertz came to appreciate years after growing up that now inform his deliberations as a father. Though today's world may be faster, louder and more cluttered with technology, Lennertz manages to appreciate the advantages of the past and the present, of small town life and the pace of the big city.
PS: If you're a parent worried that your children may be watching too much TV, you'll find the chapter entitled "TV Money," an especially clever method of making them voluntarily eschew the small screen. But you'll have to read the book. My lips are sealed.

A delightful book! Mr. Lennertz has managed (with great fluidity) to touch on so many of the joys, fears, and rites-of-passage of childhood in the sixties, and place them in the perspective of today's parenting challenges. Being a kid isn't really all that different now, despite the apparent changes in the world. Not to mislead, this not a 'how-to' book; the author does not pretend to have the 'answer'. But, if you are a parent, you may be pleasantly surprised to find that, as you share the colorful stories woven by Mr. Lennertz in this book, some of your own answers emerge! Enjoy it, and enjoy your children!

I so wanted to like this book, but ... I mean I didn't dislike it, but there just wasn't much here to get your teeth into, or to really pique your interest. I found the book in a local thrift store - an autographed copy, no less - and took it right home and read it in just a couple sittings. Not, unfortunately, because it was so gripping, but because it was easy to skim. There were no real personal stories in here, only generalities which barely skimmed the surface of Lennertz's childhood and teenage years. Indeed, he barely mentions the name of his Long Island hometown until near the very end of the book. His parents receive distresingly short shrift. Very few people are given names. I mean there's nothing concrete here. It's like the author was fearful of offending anyone or appearing 'bad.' Maybe it's because he is supposedly writing this for his young daughter to read. Which just doesn't work, unless you wanna write a children's book. I hate to say it's boring, Carl, but it kinda is. And I know your life was/is a helluva lot more interesting than this book indicates. I know because I came from a family with six kids too. In fact, just like you, I came from a family of five boys and one girl. You say several times in the book how clearly you can remember everything, but you don't let us in on any of these details. And details are what make a story interesting! Wait a few more years, Carl, then write your story again, and don't worry about what people might think. Just tell it like it was. Your daughter (who will be grown up by then), will understand. My own daughter, who is thirty now, prefers the middle book of my own memoir trilogy, about my young army years (Soldier Boy). She thinks it's my best book, even though around here it's whispered about as "that dirty book." C'mon, Carl. You're a good writer - or could be - tell us the whole story, warts and all. Having said all this, however, Lennertz does manage to convey one very important thing in this book: i.e. how much he loves his daughter and how badly he wants to keep that connection alive. For that important attempt, Bravo! - Tim Bazzett, author of the Reed City Boy trilogy