Customer Reviews

Things As They Are

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This is a beautifully written book about different occurances in a young boy's life that make him loose his innocence. It is filled with some tear jerking metaphors, powerful quotes, and a sad and wonderfully accurate portryal of life. It is a 'Catcher in the Rye'-esque read that leaves you feeling nostalgic sad and happy all at once.

This is one of the favorite books I taught to seniors in high school in the late 1960s. I lost my copy years ago and I am greatly looking forward to reading it again (and again) now that it is back in print. It was written in 1951 (the beginning days of birthing boomers) by a two-time Pulitzer prize winner. It is a collection of chronologically sequenced "short stories" (each a major learning event) in the life of a boy-child growing step-by-experiential-step out of innocence into maturity (young adulthood). Horgan defines innocence as a child's initial belief about self and the world which is summarized in the phrase that "the world revolves around me," which, of course, is not the reality of "things as they are." It is as good a book today as it was almost 60 years ago when it was written, especially since all of us know too many chronological adults (individually and collectively) who are still "innocents" in their personal, community, and political lives. Seeing and relating to the world as it is, is seeing "things as they are." Horgan's very well written book helps us reflect on our own maturity and how we achieved it (or are still growing into it), what our interaction with key events in our lives led us to, and hopefully those reactions were an opening of our eyes/minds/hearts to accept and see "things as they are" and act accordingly.

I liked the book. Life from a child's view is something adults tend to forget. We tend to believe that childhood is a carefree, unaware and uncomplicated time. It's not. I wish I would have read it when my children were small. I may have been more patient and understanding.