Details:
- author: Francisco Goldman
- full title: Monkey Boy
- narrator: Robert Fass
- genre: literary fiction
- topics: #family, #relationships, #commingofage
- publisher: Tantor Audio
- publish date: 04.05.2021
- timing: 12:12:00
My Rating of the Audiobook:
- content: 💙💙💙💙
- narration: 💙💙💙💙.5
 |
| Goodreads |
Excerpt from the Book:
So here was Lexi talking about her therapy, about what a bastard Bert was and how she’d worked through that with the help of her therapist. But my sister had a surprise. Her voice was now raised and flattened as if to focus our attention, or mine really, to this new level of seriousness. Recently, she and her therapist had been going deeper into her life’s traumas, bringing those that hadn’t seemed so obvious to the surface. I remember considering at that moment whether or not to order another bourbon on the rocks and deciding that one was enough; I’ve never let myself get even a little bit drunk around my sister or even my mother, afraid of what I might say, guarding against something, not sure what exactly. Lexi began to speak about what she’d suffered when we were children, watching me be bullied by the Saccos and other boys. Here we go with the almost murdered story again, I thought, and I got ready to scowl and say, Lexi, I wasn’t almost murdered. Instead my sister said that even that had not emotionally hurt and damaged her the way, when we were a little older, watching my father beat me had. She explained that not only was it terrifying, just awful, Frank, to witness, but it also used to make her feel so helpless. It was her helplessness in the face of my father’s violence, her inability to rescue me, to make him stop hitting me that had traumatized her. That’s what her therapist had made her see.
Hah, yeah, I said, lightly scoffing, trying to turn it into a little joke. Back then there were all those protests against the violence of the Vietnam War, but I guess you couldn’t just march up and down Wooded Hollow Road protesting against Daddy, could you?
Lexi pressed on as if she hadn’t heard me. My mother was complicit in that helplessness, she was explaining, being helpless herself. I can’t blame Mom, she said. She didn’t know what to do either. We were both helpless. As she listened to Lexi go on in this way, my mother’s expression became childishly blank, as if her dementia had chosen just that moment to seize control of her brain, which it hadn’t, not at all. She was still teaching in those days.
I said coolly: So you pay money to talk about how Daddy hitting me used to make you feel. That’s rich.
My Thoughts:
Monkey boy is another one of those books, that some will like and some just won't. It's a literary fiction genre and written in a stream-of-consciousness style. At first, it seems a bit confusing, and slow. But don't give up right away.
Main character, Francisco Goldberg is sharing his memories of childhood. He remembers his upbringing in a half-Guatemalan and half-Jewish family and shares his thoughts about his relationship with his mother and abusive father.
Although I love literary fiction, and I enjoy reading this particular genre in a book format, I think, in this case, the audiobook was better for me.
The narration was great, although at first, it may seem a bit monotonous. But it's not. It suits the type of narration in this book. The narrator distinguishes different voices of other people - women and that of his father. This audiobook will be appreciated especially by literary fiction fans.
About the Author:
Francisco Goldman has published five novels and two books of non-fiction. The Long Night of White Chickens was awarded the American Academy’s Sue Kaufman Prize for First Fiction. His novels have been finalists for several prizes, including, twice, the Pen/Faulkner Prize. The Ordinary Seaman was a finalist for The International IMPAC Dublin literary award. The Divine Husband was a finalist for The Believer Book Award. The Art of Political Murder won The Index on Censorship T.R. Fyvel Book Award and The WOLA/Duke Human Rights Book Award. The Interior Circuit: A Mexico City Chronicle, published in 2013, was named by the LA Times one of 10 best books of the year and received The Blue Metropolis “Premio Azul” 2017. His novel Say Her Name won the 2011 Prix Femina étranger. His books have been published in 16 languages.
