relegated to the "recovery" shelf, and that's too bad

books:


	• The End of the World as We Know It: Scenes from a Life Robert Goolrick Algonquin Books, 2008 - 227 pages average customer review:based on 26 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

I was amazed

at Mr. Goolrick's ability to express desperate feelings I would have thought impossible to describe...

at the way his family was ready to blame him and never ever mentioned what happened to him...

at the sick behavior of his father...

at the amount of medication the author is (was?) taking...

I sincerely hope that writing this excellent memoir was a healing experience.

raw and heavy

I read while I work out at the Y. While reading The End, I realized my work outs were getting longer and longer because I couldn't put down this book. Sometimes I'd be grinning like a fool, and at other times, I would have tears running down my face. You'll want to write Goolrick a letter. You'll want to call an old friend who had a rough childhood.

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relegated to the "recovery" shelf, and that's too bad

The writing in this book deserves the widest audience possible; the subject matter is painful, difficult, but the author's skill with the language is as redemptive as the story itself.

How not to raise a child

There is no doubt that the author is a creative and lyrical writer, but the emotions conveyed herein are so much more compelling and vivid because they are real. It is a must read for any parent who has anxiety about their own self-doubt in raising children. The book evokes the mixed raw emotions of a child who wants to love and be loved by his parents (and others), but is incapable of emulating feelings that have never been received. At times, the run-on-sentence rush of scattered thought can be spellbinding and alternately monotonous, but the story is a page turner despite the raw thought to paper style. Although I found the book heartbreaking, I also found the self-loathing horrifying at times. This is a quick read.

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The sadest book!

I had heard the author on the radio and really liked his voice and the way he answered the interviewers' questions. I started to read the book at 9 am on one morning and was done at noon. Not even once did I stop reading. He wrote with a great style, you felt that you just wanted to get into the story, hug him and cry with him and tell him that everything will be O.K. I did not even have time to cry while reading. The shock of his misery was just too big. After each of the incidents i kept thinking: O.K., now that was the worst, right?
Very good book.

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reviews: page 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6

In the Goolrick home there was a law: Never talk about the family in the outside world, never reveal the slightest crack in the facade. To all appearances, they lived an almost idyllic life. Two respected, charming parents everyone loved. Three bright, smiling children. A lovely home on a quiet street nestled in a small college town. But behind the facade this family had created lurked secrets so dark, so painful for one little boy, that his life would never be the same.

With devastating honesty and razor-sharp wit, Goolrick looks back at this seemingly serene time and at the parents who gave him life and then robbed him of it, who created his world and then destroyed it.

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