Book #2 of the summer

I’m not sure how to review this book. To be honest, I’m not even quite sure why I bought it. It had a lot to do with the fact that it was a memoir, and I felt like reading something real.

The book is easy enough to read, it isn’t particularly heavy or long-winded. I made it through in a few days. It’s interesting. Grogan reaccounts his life, starting from when he was very young up till a few years ago. The first part has an inordinate focus on Catholicism. It was intriguing to see how a kid, not yet jaded by life or religion, viewed Catholicism. However, it just felt like it took up too much of the focus of the book. I suppose that’s how he lived the first part of his life, and thus it makes sense that it would appear in his memoir, but I feel like other aspects of his life were not given much attention because of it. There are a lot of things that he spoke about in regards to religion that I can sympathise with - a parent’s disappointment in not being as religious as them, for instance. I can also relate to having religion dictate a lot of aspects of your life, and that made me keep reading to see how events would unfold. In the end though, it is a story of how and ordinary boy made his way in the world and eventually settles down with a woman he loves and starts a family. An everyday story, unique in its own sense.