Customer Reviews

Reed City Boy

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I've been pondering why I loved this book so much. Nothing very exciting happens in it. It's just a scrupulously honest remembrance of growing up in a small town in the 1950s - growing up in a mostly functional family, which means there's not a lot of conflict or interior angst. So why did it feel like a page turner? Why was I so charmed by it? A friend who fancies herself a Serious Reader (Proust, one of her faves) loved REED CITY BOY too, and we spent a fair bit of time trying to figure out why the book works so well. Well, it's beautifully written, by a guy who obviously knows the craft all the way down to the level of the sentence. And there's not a false or insincere or self-serving note in it anywhere, which is oh so rare in a memoir. And I guess we recognized ourselves, our own growing-up years, on these pages, even though Reed City, Michigan is a couple of thousand miles from Gresham, Oregon where I grew up, or Miami, my friend's childhood home. (Not to mention the little matter that Tim's a guy and we're girls.) I guess Tim Bazzett, writing about the ordinary events of an ordinary life, just managed to say some important things about childhood and adolescence. And it resonated with us. Or maybe he's just a fun guy to hang out with for a couple of hundred pages.

Reed City Boy is a wonderful rendering of a particular time and place and people; but it is much more than that: it is the story of American small town life in the 1950s and 60s, when people were more attached to the land and to each other, and the sense of actually belonging somewhere was palpably strong. Tim Bazzett has some fondness for that time, and his book will persuade you that he has every right to that fondness. As I read his accounts I was reminded that America was once a country of small towns, and that the qualities those places instilled built something unique and wonderful in the American character. Bazzett's writing helps us to remember those qualities, and in that sense he has created a valuable document that should be widely read.

REED CITY BOY tells the story of coming of age in a small Michigan town. Reading this story, I was reminded of my own growing up just as several other readers were too. Tim Bazzett tells a familiar story of boyhood in the 1950s and early 60s, and he tells this story with candor and fondness for a time that distance desires to render nostalgic, but reason warns us to judge with care. Judge with care because the time Bazzett writes about was not only innocent, but also dark around the edges. In this book we hear about summer cottages by the lake, cowboy heroes of the silver screen, casual jobs on farms or in grocery stores, school basketball teams, teachers whose influence has lasted into senior years, high school graduation, grandparents, family dynamics, learning to drive, and first adventures in dating. We also hear about pimples, unwanted haircuts, masturbation, smoking, church confession, and the constant presence of sex in the fantasy life of a teenager. What we might also hear, if we listen closely, is unspoken family tension, the loneliness haunting a young life, and the growing unrest of the Kennedy years and what followed. And when I say "hear," I mean we accompany the writer as he candidly tells the story of his childhood and youth; we hear his words as if he was in the room with us - his asides, his colloquial expressions, his exclamations, his pauses while we leave the room to try out a game he has described (truth to tell, I did not try the broom game). In other words, this is a very readable book that tells a story many readers who grew up in the post war period will recognize. Readers who grew up in a later time will learn much about their parents' generation, and readers who grew up in an even later (more recent) time will find the descriptions of life 50 years ago amusing and perhaps even salutary. When I say that readers like myself will recognize much that Bazzett describes in this book, I am sure that this is true. However, a secondary effect of reading this book for me is the reminder that my life was (and how could it not have been?) quite different. And herein is an unexpected pleasure derived from Bazzett's book. Not only have I enjoyed hearing about the early years of a boy in the 1950s and early 60s and getting to know someone I have never met, but I have also felt the nudge of recollection. REED CITY BOY prompts one to check back in his (or her) own life to see what went on then. The book stirs memory. This is welcome. And I do not think that memory is something for the senior, but rather for anyone who desires to understand how we become the person we are at any time in our development. To put this another way, I recommend this book to any reader of any age. It is funny, honest, and remarkably full in its recollection of years many of us have buried deep in the recesses of our subconscious. I leave this book knowing I shall revisit it, and eager to move on to the next years in the life of this engaging author.

Tim Bazzett is a couple of years younger than I am, and as I read this memoir I kept thinking, in awe, "How does he remember all these details?" I have flashes of memory of what I did at Bazzett's age in the book, but most of the details seem lost. Maybe I'd say "Totally awesome, Dude!" if I were (a lot) younger, but I'm not, so I won't. Reed City Boy is the first of three (so far) memoirs from Tim Bazzett. Soldier Boy is the second in the sequence, and is about his life in the Army Security Agency, basic and advanced training, base assignments in Germany and Turkey in the mid 1960's. After reading the first couple of chapters of that book I ordered Reed City Boy and Pinhead from Amazon. I'm now halfway through Pinhead, which continues Bazzett's story post-ASA to the late 1960's. Reed City Boy is about Bazzett's youth, Soldier Boy is the transition into adulthood, and Pinhead is about maturity. Together they make a very fine and engaging series.

All three books are loaded with black-and-white photos. What you get is a paean to the value of recording events. In this book you will see, for example, lots of photos of Tim and his family and friends in cowboy suits. You'll read about his cowboy heroes--Lash LaRue, the Durango Kid, and others. Lash LaRue died in 1996--until then he would occasionally make appearances and you'd see him on TV. But I hadn't thought about the Durango Kid for maybe 50 years until I read Reed City Boy. Good old Hopalong Cassidy I still remember--he may not have been one of Bazzett's heroes. You'll read the details about growing up on a farm with outdoor plumbing, cleaning out chicken coops and other chores, some fun and some not so fun (but which helped prepare him for Army life). You get the transition to small town life, high schools, Catholic Communion, high school.

Bazzett when young had an appetite for reading (which continued in Soldier Boy and Pinhead). Without this appetite, if there even were the trio of memoirs, they would probably be "By Timothy Bazzett, as told to Ludwig Snarf" or something like that. Bazzett writes smoothly and comfortably, and has a wonderful sense of humor. He is also disengagingly frank--there are episodes which you don't often see the likes of in other books, except for a few such as Portnoy's Complaint (which Bazzett cites). So what you get is a thoroughly enjoyable look back: if you're as old as Tim and I are, the series will certainly trigger a lot of memories of things long forgotten--some best forgotten, some not. Highly recommended!

If you prefer shocking, depressing or off-beat literature, this book is not for you. If, on the other hand you enjoy an honest story about a classic '50's American childhood, this is it. It's a book you make friends with. Tim Bazzet stirs memories and tickles the funny bone with his good-natured, irresistibly detailed portrait of Small-Town, U.S.A. It's a slice of life from a past many of us remember and with Tim's help, will not be forgotten. Thanks Tim, for writing down your memories.

REED CITY BOY by Timothy Bazzett is an honest, down-to-earth story about growing up in a small town. I think the reason I enjoyed it so much is because it reminded me a lot of my own childhood. I grew up in a small town, my grandfather had a farm and I related to a lot of the same things that he brought out in the book. When he spoke of the teachers he liked in high school, I found myself digging out my old Senior yearbook and reading what my teachers wrote to me. Mr. Bazzett has a great style of writing in that he seems to be talking with his readers on a one-on-one basis rather than just telling a story.

This is the second of Timothy Bazzett's books I have read and I am looking forward to reading PINHEAD next.

I would recommend this book to any fellow `small town kids' or anyone who enjoys an honest coming-of-age book.

I found myself enthralled by this true account of the author's life as a boy growing up in Reed City, Michigan, concluding with his graduation from high school One is convinced the author is no James Frey, that all he relates is real. He lives in town but his grandfather had a farm and the author has thus farm experience--though he never learned to milk a cow! But he learned a lot of other things, and it is a joy to see that he appreciated his good hard-working parents. I am looking forward, with some trepidation, to how he will react to the brutal reality of Army life--hoping his solid youth trainng will stand him in good stead in a life which some are less than ennobled by.

I read Reed City Boy after reading Soldier Boy. Since really enjoyed Soldier Boy I knew that I wouldn't be disappointed with this book. It just takes you back to a more innocent time and makes you laugh at all of the various situations that Tim encountered while growing up. Sometimes I thought that he was writing about me, since I can relate to the many things he went through. That small town environment fitted me to a tee. This is a great book and comes highly recommended.