David Layton

First line:
~Towards the end of spring my mother began to cry~

I picked this up recently from the bookcase in my condo laundry room because I thought it looked interesting. When Poetry was chosen as the April RandomCat topic I decided to take a look since David Layton is the son of Canadian poet, Irving Layton.

David has written an compelling memoir of his pre-adolescent and adolescent years growing up in an incredibly dysfunctional home.

My first thought, as I began to read this book was how disjointed it was. It seemed to just be a bunch of unrelated incidents. Then I came to realize that this was David’s life. Unrelated, unconnected incidents. No continuity. No stability.

As his parent’s marriage began to disintegrate and they both had relationships outside the marriage, they profoundly neglected their son. Both his mother and father had little time for David, although it is clear that they loved him.

David was sent here, there and everywhere. His father was so often absent and even when he was present he was ‘absent’ so months would go by before David would even realize that his father was not in the home.

There are severely disturbing descriptions of parental negligence. And yet at the same time this book is a testament to the resilience of children and the ability to survive severe challenges. The story of his life is told with humor and from a place of understanding of just how damaged Irving and Aviva were themselves.

3.5 stars… (mere)