GONE TO THE WOODS

Life was hard for the boy, who wasn’t an orphan but was close enough to being one while still having parents.

In this emotional memoir, Paulsen writes about himself in the third person as “the boy,” choosing several pointed childhood experiences that were instrumental to his maturation into a writer. As a child, the boy is rescued by his grandmother, who is appalled to learn that, at 5, he is performing for an array of his mother’s suitors in Chicago bars while his father is serving in World War II. Upon her insistence that he relocate to his aunt and uncle’s farm, the boy makes the journey by train to Minnesota alone. There, he experiences unconditional love for the first time. However, all good things come to an end, and when the mother retrieves the boy to join his father in the Philippines, the narrative shifts, and the boy experiences ongoing trauma that many readers will connect to. Paulsen keenly observes his youth from a distance, only identifying himself once by name. In this way, he effectively executes the roles of both an actor in the story and director of the text. This sense of close-detachedness results in a rich, compelling read that is emotive and expressive without forcing empathy from the reader. Both brightly funny and darkly tragic, it is fresh in its honest portrayal of difficult themes.

Readers will fall into this narrative of succeeding against overwhelming odds amid deep trauma.