Module 5 - History, Biography & Non-Fiction
"Read three of the following selections:"
Plot Summary
Chris Crutcher humorously chronicles the events of his life that have made him who he is today. Growing up in small town Cascade, Idaho, sports and family were very important within the community. The first few chapters serve to set up Crutcher's defining characteristics: he has a bad temper and cries very easily. The remainder of the chapters each end with Chris making a great revelation, generally as a result of his own humiliation. Anecdotes are alternately funny or sad (sometimes both), but they all lead to the revelation of profound life lessons for both the author and the reader.Critical Analysis
Each chapter at times feels as though it's a stream-of-consciousness account of a random smattering of events, but they always end up having a common thread that ties them together and drives home the point. These anecdotes are arranged around a common theme, such as Crutcher's development of his storytelling, or the lesson of relativity. Chapters are roughly arranged as Crutcher matured, with some slippage in the timeline for the sake of drawing together similarly themed events within his personal history.Photographs are provided at the end of the narrative and provide a brief glimpse into Crutcher's childhood. It would be more engaging if these were included along with the narrative, perhaps even at the beginning of each chapter. The clumping of the images at the end makes them an afterthought. The photo of Crutcher and his brother "Getting ready to 'do something neat'" would have been a perfect introduction to chapter 3 "Something Neat This Way Comes" that established the brotherly relationship for readers. With the pictures at the end readers have to make their own connections to where they might fit within the narrative structure of the book.
Crutcher's narrative style is engaging and humorous, with a variety of anecdotes throughout, so that any one section does not seem overly long. Many of the stories involve Crutcher being either humiliated or triumphantly mischievous, which lends a great deal of humor to the tales. One might even wonder how this child made it through to adulthood with any self esteem in tact. To tie everything together, several groupings of stories are wrapped up with such revelations as:
"In the end, the lesson taught me in the physical world by my father and Limburger cheese and mink scent extended into virtually every corner of my universe and made it possible for me to work in, and tell stories about, a world where searing pain and mind-numbing heroism flow side by side. They intermix and overlap, guiding me away from black-and-white judgments that might come back to haunt and humble me. No one is pretty; no one is ugly. There is no Jesus without Judas, no Martin Luther King, Jr., without the Klan; no Ali without Joe Frazier; no freedom without tyranny. No wisdom exists that does not include perspective. Relativity is the greatest gift."In these concluding statements to these chapters Crutcher ties together his childhood experiences, his adult experiences, his writing career, and basic truths about life into nice little take-away packets. Crutcher does not include such concise summaries for every chapter, but several include it and these chapters would make for great examples of writing structure and summary in a classroom setting.
Reviewers from Kirkus, VOYA, School Library Journal, and Booklist all consistently paint this autobiography as funny, honest, sad, and touching. This comes across as a bit of a disparate group of terms to describe any one work, but it is his tone which sets the funny, his style which sets it as honest, and the events within that make it both sad and touching. His approach of being "candid" (Kirkus), "brutally honest" (VOYA), and "tough and tender" (Booklist) is what will draw teens in who are skeptical of most adult viewpoints. Crutcher describes his approach to truth in the conclusion to chapter 13 after a very touching anecdote:
"Genius, if you think about it from the four-year-old perspective. Allie was key in shaping me as a writer. If I took those words away from her, she would have no way to test the waters, and though it's a pretty astonishing thing to hear roll off the tongue of a four-year-old, it would be nothing short of disrespectful to take away the language she needed to express her world. If I am to make characters real, I have to treat them with that same respect, and I have to be willing to tell stories about the ruggedness of their lives. Anything less is far more disrespectful than the use of those really meaningless words in print; disrespectful to the character, to the reader, and to the author. So anytime I get a character just right, find that spot where language and circumstance and character merge to tell some tough truth, I thank Allie. And because of her, I never back off the truth as I see it, or the language required to tell it."
As a non-fiction title, this book lacks a useful table of contents, index, or bibliography, but it doesn't need it. This is primarily the story of one man's life and he is the premier expert on the matter.
Bibliography
Crutcher, Chris. King of the mild frontier: an ill-advised autobiography. New York: Greenwillow Books, 2003. ISBN 0060502495.Reviews
From Kirkus:What might have been just a volume of funny or unsettling anecdotes becomes a candid take on lessons learned, with a clear adult perspective. This is a good read and a deeply moral and philosophical work with important messages about life, death, relativity, heroism, and why bad things sometimes happen to good people. Like Gantos's Hole in My Life (2002), it tells a strong story to get at strong truths. Essential for the many fans of Crutcher's work, and new readers will go from here to his fiction.From Publishers Weekly:
In this funny, bittersweet and brutally honest autobiography, Crutcher recounts his journey from a boyhood misspent in remote Cascade, Idaho ("The information highway was a single-lane logging road winding through steep mountains, dead ending at some nameless `crick' ") to his present life as a writer. The author displays the same impeccable comedic timing that characterizes his young adult novels. ... It is precisely this sense of humility that allows readers to laugh with young Chris, rather than at him. Crutcher can also turn from hilarity to heartache, as when he discusses his mother's alcoholism or his own legendary temper (which plagued hm in his childhood but which he attributes to the compassion he brings to his work as a family therapist). Readers will clasp this hard-to-put-down book to their hearts even as they laugh sympathetically.From VOYA:
Already a favorite with young adults, Crutcher pens an autobiography of his youth that will find an easy audience in a genre that teachers and librarians sometimes find hard to sell. His stories about the anguish that was his childhood are both sad and funny. He suffers from being nearly three years younger than his brother, from living in a small town where invisibility is impossible, and from being totally unathletic in a school where everyone is expected to play. Through a series of vignettes, Crutcher lays bare many painful memories of his childhood, and readers see the source of some of his best stories and characters. His fiery temper, which flares hottest when he is embarrassed, is later exhibited by his characters in Chinese Handcuffs (Greenwillow, 1989/VOYA June 1989), Ironman (1995/VOYA June 1995), and Whale Talk (2001/VOYA June 2001). His experience on his college swim team with a coach who "invites" the team to a week of stamina training over Christmas break forms the framework for his immensely popular Stotan! (1986/VOYA April 1986). His own struggles with organized religion are reflected by many of his characters, as they try to make sense out of chaos. His work as a family therapist helping damaged children and the adults who torment them colors his characters in many ways and gives edge to his themes. In telling his own story, Crutcher entertains readers, challenges them, and touches their hearts. This is a biography that will be read-not skimmed-and loved.-Leslie Carter.From School Library Journal:
Tough and tender reminiscences focus primarily on family, social, and school conflicts, but lessons derived from his career as a teacher, therapist, and writer are also described. Hyperbole lightens the mood as the author portrays himself as a young crybaby, academic misfit, and athletic klutz, utterly without self-aggrandizement. Abrupt transitions, some convoluted sentences, and nonlinear progression may challenge some readers, but the narrative holds undeniable appeal for the author's fans and demonstrates the power of writing to help both reader and writer heal emotional/psychic wounds.-Joel Shoemaker, Southeast Junior High School, Iowa City, IAFrom Booklist:
Like his novels, Crutcher's autobiography is full of heartbreak, poignancy, and hilarity. Candid and casual, Crutcher shares stories from his childhood and adolescence in Cascade, Idaho. Reminiscences of some of his youthful rites of passage are laugh-out-loud funny, such as his humiliating initiation into his high-school athletic club. On a more serious note, he discusses his occasionally rocky relationships with his parents and siblings. He talks openly about his struggles with a bad temper that constantly got him into trouble, how he came to terms with questions about God, how he confronted intolerance, and how he found his own place in the world. He also shares several painful glimpses into his work as a child and family therapist trying to help people heal some very broken lives. This honest, insightful, revealing autobiography is a joy to read. Crutcher's fans will relish this intimate glimpse of the author, and the book may win some new readers for his fiction. --Ed Sullivan
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