The subtitle for this book is: One Man’s Memories, and that’s a very appropriate description. He talks about his life honestly and openly, and he makes no excuses for his actions.
He has bone cancer at this point in his life, and I think that’s part of what has made him reflect back over his life and how he lived it.

He grew up in poor times. His family and his other relatives were all in fairly close proximity for a while, but his folks had the opportunity to buy another farm and get into with no money down, just monthly payments.
To make the payments required the whole family to work hard, including the children. They would walk to school, do lessons, walk back home and then go work in the fields.
They ate a lot of wild meat (and used up all parts of the animals), grew their own gardens, milked cows and more.
He discusses old time farm implements and talks of the days of no running water or bathrooms. Indoor plumbing only came when the children were all grown and one of them paid for it.
He got so very tired of the farm and how exhausted it made him, that he made up his mind to get an education and do something more with his life. No matter what else, he wouldn’t be farming!
He left the farm and moved in with his aunt and uncle. He found temporary jobs and picked up job experience and knowledge. After several jobs, he decided to join the service.
He had rheumatic fever when he was young and his heart wasn’t good, but he got in the service anyway. He became a parachutist and enjoyed the jumps, but his health finally caught up with him. He became AWOL.
In time, he made that good by resolving the issue with the service.
Then he moved into various jobs. Along the way he got married and had a child.
After trying a variety of jobs, he got on with IBM and did well there. But his marriage was a joke – he’d never really loved her. He hadn’t really learned how to love from his family life.
He started having flings with women because it made him feel good – and made him important because the women threw themselves at him. This eventually got him fired from IBM.
But he was already applying to Xerox and had a job offer there, so he wasn’t concerned.
He went through two more marriages, had more children, and slept with anybody willing on the way.
He finally found a woman that he loved, but she found out he was untrue, and divorced him. So he just continued jumping from bed to bed.
He remembers more about his male friends than his female conquests. Maybe he should have learned something from that.
Life is hard for all of us, but this man’s life was particularly dark.
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If you’d like to read this book, email me and tell me why. I’ll be giving my signed copy away.
Book Review written by Jo Ann Hokola, butyoudontlooksick.com 2009