ARA Review by Matthew_James_Hunt of The Boy who Lived with Ghosts

[Matthew_James_Hunt]

[Following is an OnlineBookClub.org ARA Review of the book, The Boy who Lived with Ghosts.]

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5 out of 5 stars

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The Boy who Lived with Ghosts is a gem of authenticity, guts, and heart. Completely unique. Whoever you are, wherever you come from, whatever you normally like, just read it. It’s good, true, moving, astonishing, appalling, gut-wrenching, but surprisingly hilarious stuff.

You need to approach this with a firm understanding that it is a partial memoir (partial in that it covers a relatively short span of time), and that it also carries the tragic biography of another person as well as the boy (his older sister). It is not fiction, it is not a novel, and it is not a ghost story. Based in 1960s England, it is the true account of a boy aged five to thirteen and the awful, awful poverty, neglect, and abuse that occurred to him and others around him. A major theme in the book is mental illness at a time when it was much less understood and less ably managed than it is today (the illness is that of someone other than the boy). But it is told from the perspective of the boy, rather than the man writing it, which is very brave, but very effective, and it is frequently very funny.

I can’t remember that many chuckles for the first third of it, perhaps because he was so young, but suddenly, maybe around 30-40 percent though, there’s great humour to lighten the darkness, which pretty much lasts to the end. That’s an amazing achievement considering the some of the harrowing themes.

You also need to be prepared to be told a story in the voice of a young boy, which I struggled to get used to for a while. But I did get used to it, to the point I was transfixed by it about halfway through. The author, John Mitchell, succeeds in developing the voice over the growing boy’s life, perhaps a little too elevated near the end (the adult interposing, perhaps), but there’s generally a well managed maturing in voice.

Because a child’s voice is used, there are naturally lapses in grammar and punctuation that are integral to that voice, which the reader needs to accept as artistic license, and I generally believe they were conscious and deliberate to that end (with one, single typo as an exception). However, personally, I draw the line at lazy management of tense, which drifted back and forth a few times in an illogical way that pulled me out of the narrative flow. And there are too many exclamation marks (but, again, kids do love them).

That’s what made me think I was going to give this a begrudging 4 out of 5 star rating for a while. I usually reserve 5 out of 5 for very great and perfect works because otherwise the rating system is meaningless. But, but, and but – the TRUTH of it, the authenticity of it, the HEART of it. I have to give this beautiful piece of well-crafted, moving, and hilarious truth-telling a rating of 5 out of 5 stars.

You will only regret reading this if you have no heart or humour. It’s upsetting at times (and there’s lots of swearing), but the truth and heart is beautiful. And funny. This is a very rare 5 out of 5 for me. I honestly feel privileged to have been given an insight to these people’s lives. Astonishing stuff.

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