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The Boys Are Back (Movie Tie-in Edition (Vintage)
by
Simon Carr
"So there we are, a father and two sons in a household without role models, males together in a home different from anything I'd known—an idyllic Lost Boys' world with a house full of children and as few rules as possible."
When Simon Carr's wife Susie lost her battle to cancer, Carr was left to raise his 5-year old son, Alexander, on his own. Soon after, Hugo, his 11-year...more
When Simon Carr's wife Susie lost her battle to cancer, Carr was left to raise his 5-year old son, Alexander, on his own. Soon after, Hugo, his 11-year...more
Paperback, 240 pages
Published
April 27th 2011
by Vintage
(first published August 1st 2000)
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I loved this movie and I really enjoyed the book too even though the movie quite departs from the facts of the story of Simon Carr's experience of raising his two sons, Hugo and Alexander, after the death of his wife Susie. Carr's technique in wholly avoiding touching on the topic of his own grief surrounding his wife's death is completely effective in conveying his feelings about it. Instead he weaves the impact of that significant event through his focus on running his household without a fema...more
The first two-thirds or so of this memoir, about raising his young son after his wife's death from cancer, is so honest and funny and real; I found myself underlining passages on nearly every page. Carr's a great writer, and kept a detailed journal of life with his boy. As he writes in one passage, "You think you're going to remember every moment but children's conversation is so odd, so unlike anything we do later, so original -- we just don't have a frame of reference to hold memories in ...more
Simon Carr's memoir describes how he came to raise his two sons as a single father, and his adventures in trying to parent them in this rather unorthodox family unit. Carr tells his engaging story with remarkably self-depreciating candor and wit, and he is equally effective at movingly conveying his devastation and bewilderment at the death of his wife from cancer, and the resulting effect on his youngest son.
Carr's memoir is on firmest-footing when he describes how, as head of an...more
Carr's memoir is on firmest-footing when he describes how, as head of an...more
The author of this book relates the tale of his wife's death and his utter incompetence (at first!)as he attempts to raise their 5-year-oldson plus his son from a previous marriage. It's full of pathos and also very funny--he is quite witty--but ultimately I lost interest as the last half of the book wanders off into his ultra-liberal views on child rearing.
Having 4 sons I have often wondered just how they would cope if I were not there. This book gives an insight into how life could be. Not quite Lord of the Flies but having some feral moments. I think like Simon and his family they would survive just fine.
tina
added it
another airport acquisition that i'm embarrassed about--look at how big clive owen's picture is. it's a pin-up. cover aside, as a work of nonfiction by someone who has been through major trauma, i expected this to be revelatory. don't you think of revelation when you look at clive owen? instead it was strangely detached. plus, carr is ultra reductionist, which is kind of boring. although some insights are entertaining (how Carr's world is ruined when life alters his mind's prerecorded videotape)...more
Cleverly written and surprisingly endearing. Very good read.
Made me cry.
Though at times I disagreed with him (and I don't even have kids yet) it was really interesting to read Carr's insights on living in an exclusively male household. As a widower raising one young son plus an older one from a previous marriage, Carr is earnest and honest about the struggles of being a single parent, particularly a father. I didn't particularly care for his writing but it did make me think about fatherhood in a different way.
a good read. loved it, and it reminded me a lot of warren and his boys and my photo project about them
Debra
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