Father Gregory Boyle's Memoir "Tattoos on the Heart" Killing LA Gang Violence with Kinship and Kindness

Father Gregory Boyle is a Jesuit Priest who chose to move into downtown LA's poorest, gang riddled areas to solve for the vicious cycle of poverty, hatred, violence and unemployment.  Father Boyle's loosely structured memoir feels like he's directing an intimate conversation with the reader to share what he's experienced living in the Boyle Heights area of LA, the people he's come to known and love and the practices he incorporates to make positive change in the community.  The memoir does pull at one's heartstrings with shared pride in people turning their lives around, the numerous, senseless killings of young people and the joy that comes from kinship.  Kinship is the meme that has given rise to mutual understanding, respect and camaraderie.  Father Boyle brings us along on his many rides (literally) to reach young people on their terms, their willingness and their achievements.  Homeboy Industries grew out of The Dolores Mission Church in Boyle Heights in 1988.  It has become a major resource for assisting high risk youths, former gang members and recently incarcerated find employment through numbers programs that include counseling, legal aid, educational & work skills, seek employment.  This is all provided free of charge in a safe environment along with the free removal of tattoos for those who choose.  Many are looking for a way out of gang life with few options and no place to go.  Boyle has created loving communities of kinship to counter hopelessness, racism and cultural disparagement that separates people.  Father Boyle proselytizes on Catholicism and Jesus' teachings.  He also quotes from many poets, scholars & religious leaders.  But, what gives Boyle's memoir its power & poignancy are the quotes from the young people whose paths have crossed with his.  These young people are amazing with their resiliency and surprising epiphanies that never fail to delight and leave an indelible impression.  This comes from a caring adult who pays attention and offers unconditional support.  Boyle does not gloss over the hundreds of burials he's officiated which are painful and senseless.  He's brought positive change into so many lives and enriched the community.  The response to kindness, kinship and respect becomes a loving community where  justice is celebrated.  It becomes impossible to demonize someone you know.   Everyone needs to hear that they are wholly acceptable for themselves.   "Tattoos on the Heart" is about out common human nature to provide room for those who are left out.

"The Last Romantics" Gets Lost in Family Dynamics Dwelling in Death by Tara Conklin

"The Last Romantics" by Tara Conklin ("The House Girl") is a novel that drags on too long dwelling in the past from the impacts of deaths in the family.  The Skinner family is turned upside down by the sudden death of the father who leaves behind a wife and 4 children: 3 daughters, Renee, Caroline and Fiona.  Fiona the youngest Skinner, future published poet is the narrator of this winding family saga. She begins from her earliest memories at 4 of her father's funeral.  After her husband's early death, Noni falls into a debilitating depression for 2 years referred to as "The Pause" by the Skinner kids. Renee nearly 12 becomes the responsible surrogate mother to her younger siblings  with the help from Caroline.  Somehow they manage to keep everyone fed, clothed and safe.  Renee wasn't able to protect herself from a sexual predator.  Thankfully, her brother Joe came to her rescue and brutally assaults Renee's attacker.  During the 2 year "Pause" the siblings became used to more liberties, adventures and their dependency on their love for one another.  Joe, the only male in the household and budding athletic star is put on a pedestal by his sisters.  Fiona lets us know early they would all  assume responsibility for Joe in his adult years.  The golden boy falls from grace in college and after graduation in NYC.  His drinking & coke addiction destroy his future with his beautiful fiancee and his high paying job in finance.   The siblings once all very close are now sprawling away from each other.  Joe takes a job in FL which he detests but finds a woman he loves Luna who shares his love for drink & drugs.  Joe suffers a fatal heart attack which draws his sisters back together.  As they clean through his apartment they find a photo of Joe & Luna and a Tiffany engagement ring.  Fiona makes it her mission to track down the "last" love of Joe's life and this obsession drives another wedge between the sisters.  The paths for the sisters & their mother take off in different tangents with varying degrees of success & fulfillment. "The Last Romantics" gets lost in a rambling of relationships and failures at love. Fiona finally realizes that the idea to fulfill her brother's "last wish" was ridiculous and wasteful.  Fiona finds we all struggle to decide what to give away and what to keep and that these calculations tally the results we live with.  Finding success as a poet Fiona sees everyone as a poet when telling their own stories created out of family, friends and love.  "The Last Romantics" is best as a story of sisterly love but loses itself in various choices that destroy what is valued most.  It's human nature, some people choose repeatedly to demolish what's most cherished.   I don't recommend vesting your time with "The Last Romantics."

Kathryn Harrison's "The Kiss" An Appalling Memoir of Romanticized Incest

Incest is vile, repugnant, immoral and illegal.  In all but 2 states, incest between a parent & adult child is illegal.  In what universe would a 4 year sexual relationship between a father and 20 year old daughter be condoned or understandable?  The resounding answer is none.  Kathryn Harrison (b Amer 1961) is a critically acclaimed novelist, memoirist and regular critic for the New York Times Book Reviews.  I have nothing but harsh criticism for Harrison's memoir "The Kiss" which details her abhorrent incestuous relationship with her father from when she was 20-24 years.  "I am wearing no underpants and he opens my legs and puts his tongue between them.  What he does feels neither good nor bad.  It effects so completely a separation between mind and body that I don't know what I feel."  This detestable consensual sex began when Kathryn an adult.  There is no vindication for either party.  Yet, Kathryn seeks sympathy for having a loveless childhood.  Her teenaged parents separated when she was very young.  Her mother moved out of her parent's home leaving her to be raised by the grandparents.  Her mother visited only intermittently.  Kathryn's attempt at justification is "A mother who won't see me and a father who tells me I am there only when he does see me."  The memoir is a clarion call for psychological intervening.  It does come from her mother who brings Kathryn along to a psychiatrist whom they consult together.  Her mother tells the Dr. she thinks Kathryn is having sex with her father which Kathryn denies and the lies remain dormant.  But she cannot deny, cauterize or victimize her willing participation in this lurid and revolting conduct.  She claims herself powerless and ineffectual. "My need is inexorable.  I can't arrest it anymore than I could stop myself from falling if having stepped from a rooftop into the air.  What I feel is not so much guilt as dislocation."  I felt nothing but distaste & revulsion for her salacious lack of self-control.  I condemn her father, the preacher of his local church.  She questions him if they will face Hell.  He replies "There are rules that apply to most people and there are people who are outside of those rules."  There is nothing redeeming in "The Kiss".  It's an arid & numbing read suffused with shocking & disturbing revelations.