Boy's Life

AND IF I WEEP????
10/10!!!! 5 STARS!!!

I see Ray Bradbury wherever I go (and I'm not complaining). Uncannily reminded me of a mix of Dandelion Wine and Something Wicked this way comes, two of my faves but, as I read on, it turned into something absolutely fantastic and uniquely original.

This book takes its time, not a second more and not a second less. Slow like molasses with intense payoffs. I was charmed immediately by the end of part 1.

To quote the book directly:
“It meandered like the river, and you never knew where you were going until you got there, but the journey was sweet and deep and left you wishing for more.”

And I cannot stress how much it means to me that this book called “Boy's Life”, after hundreds of pages of the magic of “boyhood” ends in an epilogue where our main character is all grown up with a family of his own, with a daughter, and says that it's a girl's life too. It does mean so much to me.

I'm a sentimental person (hence the Bradbury fangirling) and this is just what I needed.

An aside: Sad that magical realism in americana is always relegated to coming or age or childrens stories. Plausible deniability probably. Westerner's wouldn't be caught dead believing in magic.