What\u2019s unsaid often leaves the strongest impression, as Tye suggests in this unflinching account of growing up in 1970s Texas. The book\u2019s title nods to the Austin neighborhood where his father moved him and his brother, Kenny, in June 1970. But the author\u2019s hopes for stability there\u2014after attending eight schools and living in 10 different areas\u2014were crushed by the abusive actions of Beulah, his new stepmother. When she broke all his record albums and demanded that he quit his after-school library job, the author, weary of a life that was \u201cturning into a fight of old versus new,\u201d left home for good. The move would consign him to sleeping in secluded areas or on friends\u2019 couches, even as he continued attending school and worked toward a better future. He quickly began maximizing his street smarts (\u201cI learned that people treated me better if I didn\u2019t have my pack with me\u201d), which enabled him to gain a string of entry-level jobs and more stable living situations. However, the era\u2019s casual feel-good ethos left the author feeling frustrated and unfulfilled. After he asked his latest girlfriend if they were in love, her jarring response (\u201cDon\u2019t get confused. It\u2019s just sex\u201d) only strengthened the loner\u2019s emotional armor. Meanwhile, he was always aware that one mistake could land him in jail or back under Beulah\u2019s unforgiving control. The point is driven home by one of the book\u2019s funniest scenes, in which the author sheepishly confesses his age (just 16) to a clueless server demanding to see his driver\u2019s license (\u201cIt got really quiet at our table\u201d).<\/p>\n
When he could no longer fend off adult life, the author decided to join the U.S. Marine Corps\u2014a life-changing move that would cost him another woman\u2019s affections but would also point him toward his future, settled career. The decision sets up the most moving portions of this memoir, as when Tye unexpectedly reconnects and reconciles with his father, now divorced from Beulah and filled with regret at not doing more to get his son back home. As his father\u2019s health began to fail due to a recurrence of cancer, the pair had to face the demons that had pulled their relationship apart, as the author effectively recollects: \u201cAll those feelings\u2014betrayal, fear, anger, loneliness\u2014had gone into boxes on a shelf in the back of my mind. Now we had opened the box.\u201d How they navigated such a task will hit home for any reader who\u2019s faced a similar wrenching situation, and Tye\u2019s heartbreakingly honest narrative style will prompt nods of agreement with one of the book\u2019s core theses: \u201cIf there is one thing I know about, it is accomplishing the mission.\u201d This combination of mission and memoir highlights the power of forgiveness to repair shattered lives\u2014and, in doing so, may help some readers to find their own higher purpose.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
What\u2019s unsaid often leaves the strongest impression, as Tye suggests in this unflinching account of growing up in 1970s Texas. The book\u2019s title nods to the Austin neighborhood where his father moved him and his brother, Kenny, in June 1970. But the author\u2019s hopes for stability there\u2014after attending eight schools and living in 10 different […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":5877,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5876","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-interesting"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5876"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5876"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5876\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/5877"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5876"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5876"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5876"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}