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A Few Seconds Of Radiant Filmstrip: A Memoir Of Seventh Grade (2014)

by Kevin Brockmeier(Favorite Author)

3.46 of 5 Votes: 5

ISBN

0307908992 (ISBN13: 9780307908995)

languge

English

genre

Fiction

publisher

Pantheon

review 1: I don't read a lot of memoirs, but I connected with this one in many ways. Not only did I relate to Kevin's way of thinking and his social circumstances as I look back at my own seventh grade experience in 1983, but I am now a seventh grade English teacher. From that perspective, a look into the mind and heart of a "nerdy" seventh grade boy was interesting for me. The story reminded me a lot of The Wonder Years, and Freaks and Geeks, and of course, I loved all of the 80s cultural references. I especially liked Kevin's experience about half-way through the book; he's given an unusual opportunity to "drop out", so to speak, erase his whole existence, cancel everything. This felt to me not like the climax of the story, but more of a turning point for him. Even though it reve... morealed much of how things would work out for Kevin in the future, I was fascinated to see what events would follow to get him there, and how he would grow and change in the following months. The only weird thing for me was that this memoir was written in third person, and I'm still not sure why the author chose to do that. Despite this, the book was filled with wit and insight, and was beautifully written.
review 2: Brockmeier has crafted an intimate, all too evocative memoir that focuses entirely on his seventh grade year, 1985-86, in Little Rock, Arkansas. He writes in the present tense, from a third person perspective which lends immediacy, intensity, and just the right amount of distance, capturing all of the thrills, uncertainty, anxiety and why-did-I-do-thats of adolescence. His recollections of the mid 1980s junior high zeitgeist are spot-on. less

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