(She would dress him in a uniform and drag him with her to bars, where she set him on tabletops to draw men to her by singing songs.) The boy’s scandalized maternal grandmother is the one who insists he go live with Aunt Edy, his mother’s younger sister, and her husband, Sig, in Minnesota’s North Woods. In Minneapolis he transfers to another train to travel hundreds of miles more - all to escape an alcoholic, irresponsible mother. I was still lost in the story, rooting for the 5-year-old boy who boards a train alone in Chicago and rides 400 miles to Minneapolis surrounded by wounded soldiers returning from World War II, where his absent father (whom he won’t meet until he’s 7) has been serving as a low-level officer under General Patton. This isn’t to say the book is void of beautiful language or stunning detail. Writing a memoir is a fraught endeavor, and I can only presume that Paulsen chose this third-person device - which sometimes kept me at bay - as a form of self-care. Paulsen refers to himself throughout as “the boy.” There is just one moment, early on, when a character calls him “Gary.” While the boy spends most of the book escaping unfathomable traumas, “mind pictures” remain seared in his psyche. Edwards Award for his lasting contribution to young adult literature, takes us inside his life story, where readers will quickly make connections to events in his novels, in particular his Newbery Honor-winning “Hatchet.” Paulsen, a recipient of the American Library Association’s prestigious Margaret A. Gary Paulsen’s name is synonymous with gritty survivalist stories, so it should come as no surprise that his memoir, “Gone to the Woods,” leaves you gritting your teeth and clutching the pages. GONE TO THE WOODS Surviving a Lost Childhood By Gary PaulsenĪuthors’ childhood experiences - no matter how joyous or upsetting - often lay the groundwork for their fiction.
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