Autobiography of a Family Photo: A Novel

Rating:
Summary: An Elusive Telling
Review: I began Autobiography of a Family Photo after finishing Sandra Cisneros' House on Mango Street. As I read, I couldn't help but compare the two. What most impressed me was how Jacqueline Woodson created a convincing child's voice, yet at the same time, wove more sophisticated elements into the story. Woodson's writing style, transitions, and overall conception makes Autobiography of a Family Photo a complex, poetic read.

Rating:
Summary: Thought provoking...
Review: I have to admit, it has been a while since I read this book, but from what I can remember this book brought to light a lot of issues that one confronts growing up and approaching adulthood. The main character is forced to deal with a lot of heavy matters as many young people must do by no choice of their own. Reading this book made me think of the things that we experience as children that we don't stop to consider until years later.

Rating:
Summary: Thought provoking...
Review: I have to admit, it has been a while since I read this book, but from what I can remember this book brought to light a lot of issues that one confronts growing up and approaching adulthood. The main character is forced to deal with a lot of heavy matters as many young people must do by no choice of their own. Reading this book made me think of the things that we experience as children that we don't stop to consider until years later.

Rating:
Summary: One of my favorite books
Review: In a thrift store my eyes were drawn to the bright orange cover of a book I'd never seen before. As I moved closer I saw the title "Autobiography of a Family Photo", and a picture of a beautiful child with her eyes closed, and her face slightly scrunched against the sun.

I opened the book to the first page of the first chapter and read: "I died once. And then I died again. And then, death had no hold on me. Simple. As simple as this: Yesterday I woke up and the sky was full of blues, changing, arching over themselves. Sitting there, I watched it. And this is what I was thinking: This girl sitting here with her arms wrapped around her legs is not a girl but a woman. And in the woman there are a million little girls, bottled, muted. A million half-lives, with dark arms reaching upward, others stooped into bending, still as glass. A million girls. Dark. Bellowing. Multiplying. Chaos. Hari-Kari. War. It is inevitable. And this sky is not a sky but simply the color blue, the chaos of blue, the inevitability of blue--sky, lake, mallard, sea. Sea. Simple as..."

I was captivated. After purchasing the book no one could pull me away until I had read every last word--poetic, brilliant, familiar. A work of fiction; she writes about incest, sexual abuse, losing her beloved (gay) brother in the war, sexual exploration and becoming her own woman within a complex world.

This book has found a place in my heart alongside my other favorite authors.

Rating:
Summary: One of my favorite books
Review: In a thrift store my eyes were drawn to the bright orange cover of a book I'd never seen before. As I moved closer I saw the title "Autobiography of a Family Photo", and a picture of a beautiful child with her eyes closed, and her face slightly scrunched against the sun.

I opened the book to the first page of the first chapter and read: "I died once. And then I died again. And then, death had no hold on me. Simple. As simple as this: Yesterday I woke up and the sky was full of blues, changing, arching over themselves. Sitting there, I watched it. And this is what I was thinking: This girl sitting here with her arms wrapped around her legs is not a girl but a woman. And in the woman there are a million little girls, bottled, muted. A million half-lives, with dark arms reaching upward, others stooped into bending, still as glass. A million girls. Dark. Bellowing. Multiplying. Chaos. Hari-Kari. War. It is inevitable. And this sky is not a sky but simply the color blue, the chaos of blue, the inevitability of blue--sky, lake, mallard, sea. Sea. Simple as..."

I was captivated. After purchasing the book no one could pull me away until I had read every last word--poetic, brilliant, familiar. A work of fiction; she writes about incest, sexual abuse, losing her beloved (gay) brother in the war, sexual exploration and becoming her own woman within a complex world.

This book has found a place in my heart alongside my other favorite authors.

Rating:
Summary: The Great American Novel in 113 pages.
Review: When you think of the great American novel, you probably think of a big, thick book, maybe in several volumes, written by someone like John Jakes or James Michener. You probably wouldn't think of a slender, 113-page volume with prose as spare as poetry and just as descriptive. This little novel seems to have it all: coming of age, coming out, racial issues, incest, spousal abuse, lead paint, sex, love, Vietnam, masturbation, the generation gap, poverty, drugs, single motherhood, rock and roll, and the Brady Bunch. This is a short visit to a vivid world you won't soon forget

Rating:
Summary: Powerful, unabashedly honest
Review: While this book is termed a novel, one gets the sense much of this must come from the author's own life.
The only reason I did not give this book 5 stars is because of the inconclusive ending. The book ends when the main character is only 15, leaving many unanswered questions.
One gets the impression that it is quite likely she becomes a lesbian, but we never really know.
The main character grows up in what I assume to be a black ghetto. Her family disintegrates early on. The mother means well by her children but is promiscious, which adds to the family's problems.
As is frequently the case in these situations, the characters seem to lack the ability to grasp the long term consequences of their actions.
The book is written with a great deal of honesty and raw truth.

Rating:
Summary: Sparse, potent, compelling
Review: With a stark clarity, a little girl tells about her life growing up in the late 1960s and 1970s. They are poor and dark-skinned, except for her baby brother, whose skin tells a different story. Her older brother is lively and loves wearing their mother's heels, but he's shipped off to Vietnam. She chronicles her life and the world around her, about how everyone knows if you don't let someone do it to you, you'll never get married. And about how wanting to kiss your best friend and touch her doesn't mean anything, anything at all in this dark and collapsing world. "Autobiography of a Family Photo" is a spirited, poetic, and dark tale of hope in the strangling grasp of a world without love. It's about that hazy line between courage and obstinacy that few can delineate, and even fewer can balance. This novel is considered one of the 100 Best Gay and Lesbian Novels by the Publishing Triangle.