Another Bullshit Night in Suck City, by Nick Flynn, 2004. This is a lovely memoir about how an abandoned son struggles to come to terms with the man his father has become and how he can come to understand him and perhaps even establish a relationship with him. The book was also made into a film in 2012, with Paul Dano playing Nick Flynn and Robert De Niro, playing the passionate, alcoholic and unforgettable father, Jonathan Flynn. This is one of the most moving memoirs I’ve ever read and it comes highly recommended.
The Book of Ruth, by Jane Alexander, 1988. I will include the first paragraph from my review from Good Reads. To read the full review, click on the blue link to the upper left, above.
“I'll never forget when I first saw this book. It was being carried in the arm of a woman who had had an affair with my second husband during the year 1993 when my daughter was only a year old. She was a woman I alternately despised and pitied, a neurotic mess who thrived on breaking up marriages and making women miserable, to prove something to herself, that she was some kind of Superstar in the sack or something. We just happened to be in the same bookstore, a few years after the affair had ended in Portland, Oregon, and as she passed in front of me, I saw the book pressed into her arm as she was preparing to purchase it. Instantly I was curious because of the odd title, referencing the biblical story. What was it that she found interesting about such a book? So, after I slipped away, I can't recall if we saw each other, I later purchased the book and read it…”
~Theresa Griffin Kennedy
Book Review 10 and 11...