- Paperback
- Publisher: Dell
- Language: English
- ASIN: B0007ER22I
- Product Dimensions: 17.5 x 10.7 x 3 cm
- Shipping Weight: 454 g
- Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
- See Complete Table of Contents
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Product Details |
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First Sentence
MY FATHER stopped living with us when I was three or four. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Back Cover
MY FATHER stopped living with us when I was three or four. Read the first page
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Concordance
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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Back Cover
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Most helpful customer reviews
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
Rich, satisfying memoir,
By Tyler Smith (Denver, CO) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Stop-Time: A Memoir (Paperback)
Few autobiographies that I have read match the power of this one. It manages to communicate the loneliness and isolation of youth and young adulthood, yet as a commentator on the book has correctly noted, it is free of self-pity or sentimentality.Like another great coming-of-age memoir, Richard Wright's "Black Boy," Conroy's work is a powerful rebuttal to romantic evocations of childhood. His was a life of rootlessness, occasional random (and inexplicable) violence and long stretches of boredom. Mental illness and instability seemed never to be far from his doorstep. Conroy doesn't shy away from describing any of this, or the effects that his difficult home life and environment had on him. In a powerful early scene, he describes joining in a boarding school attack on a vulnerable classmate. There are overtones of "Lord of the Flies," but the most effective -- and chilling -- quality of his description of the event is its tone of dispassion. For example, he tells of eagerly awaiting his chance to get a clean, unmolested shot at the kid, but then admits that the actual punch was disappointing, not what he thought it would be. This recitation of events is transmitted to us through the mind of the boy, not as a narrator who looks back, eager for the chance to justify or explain his motivation. But "Stop-Time" is elevated even further by Conroy's ability to capture moments of childhood magic (even though they are often leavened with disappointment). For example, there is a great chapter on his sudden obsession with learning how to do tricks with a yo-yo; another memorable sequence of scenes describes the uninhibited pleasure of driving bumper cars and partaking of a carnival's tawdry pleasures. Still, at the end of the carnival sequence, Conroy injects a note of menace, a recurring technique that emphasizes a key theme of the book: children, even in their happiest moments, are always moving toward the shadowy and dangerous landscape of adulthood. There are far too may great sections of this book to do it justice in a brief review. Suffice it to say that "Stop-Time" will deliver bittersweet pleasures, no matter how many times the reader returns to it, but try it for yourself! Pick up a copy. Another book I need to recommend -- completely unrelated to Frank Conroy, but very much on my mind since I purchased a "used" copy off Amazon is "The Losers' Club: Complete Restored Edition" by Richard Perez, an exceptional, highly entertaining little novel I can't stop thinking about.
5.0 out of 5 stars
Blows Me Away,
This review is from: Stop-Time: A Memoir (Paperback)
What blows me away about "Stop Time" is the ability of the author to capture moments of childhood magic in the midst of a story that makes its existence showing the hollow emptiness of young adulthood. It also is impressively devoid of any overabundance of self-pitty, yet aptly captures a feeling of isolation and loneliness. There are inherent similarities to other notable titles that capture the growing pains of coming of age: "Catcher in the Rye", "Lord of the Flies", "My Fractured Life", and "A Complicated Kindness." There is a strange salvation in the lyrical bleakness.
5.0 out of 5 stars
Classic American memoir,
By
This review is from: Stop-Time: A Memoir (Paperback)
Conroy has been compared to Holden Caulfield, but Stop-Time, of course, is memoir - not fiction. Also, Conroy's writing is understated, haunting, and lyrical, even when he's talking about pretty brutal and gritty stuff. It's a must-read for anyone who wants to study the art of the memoir. First published in 1967, it still rings with the truth of boyhood and adolescence during a certain time in America.The facts are not so terribly remarkable: He grew up poor, was bright but didn't do well in school, moved around a lot, his father died when he was 12, and he didn't get along with his stepfather (who, after Conroy's mother left, moved an insane girlfriend into the home). Okay, all that makes a good enough tale - but what really elevates it to high art is Conroy's skill as a writer, his ability to take a teensy memory or detail and expand it into something utterly remarkable. Read it.
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