Pre-numbered label used for registration.

Mark Doty, poet and author, tells of his childhood, in a memoir that's alternately scalding and dreamy. At times he recounts an incident in exquisite detail, only to say afterwards that he's not sure it actually happened that way - or at all; some of these episodes are amusing, some terrifying. "Childhood's work is to see what lies beneath," he says - and incorporates family anecdotes and history as he tries to come to terms with his mother's increasingly difficult behavior, his sister's rebellion [which he secretly admires], his father's baffled distance, and his own sexuality.

This story of a tempestuous childhood was more painful than his hymn to grief, the beautiful Heaven's Coast, but both are well worth reading.

I've offered this on CasualReader's book relay site, in the Gay&Lesbian relay, after accepting "Can't Buy Me Love" from Kaija. If you're interested in this book, make an offer on the relay!

*** This book's been claimed by grover3d, and will be on its way to West Virginia on Tuesday the 20th. Hope you enjoy it!

Received today - thanks so much!

A good, but not great, memoir. Doty lived a frightening childhood, and the actual "memoir" portions of the book are above average. He could have dispensed with the continual references back to the firebird (yep, we got it, thanks!) and I felt the end was extremely rushed.

I'll pass this along.