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This book is not yet featured on Listopia. Perishable is a memoir written by a man who grew up in unusual family circumstances - his mother was a devout Mormon and his father developed his own religious beliefs based around not doing anything. Part of these beliefs included only getting food out of dumpsters, which eliminated the need for those pesky time wasters we refer to as "employment". My school has an online library, and I usually have a book going on there that I can read a page or two of when things are slow.
Thank goodness this Perishable is a memoir written by a man who grew up in unusual family circumstances - his mother was a devout Mormon and his father developed his own religious beliefs based around not doing anything. Thank goodness this was not for review, because I would feel even more terrible about posting what I'm about to say. Writing The writing was terrible. I've read a lot of blog posts where people say they don't like negative reviews and that bloggers should try to find something positive to say about any book and what if the author reads it. And I truly hope Mr.
Jamison doesn't read this and get his feelings hurt, but I have nothing positive to say. Honestly, this should have been a "did not finish". I'm not really sure why I kept going after the first few chapters other than sheer boredom and the assumption that it could not continue to be as awful as it was.
And I'm not referring to the content, although you can see my opinion of that below. The writing was bad. If awkward, make-you-squirm-but-not-in-a-good-way descriptions of children eating garbage and abusing animals appeals to you, maybe you will be entertained. There are extended descriptions which I had to skip of animal abuse. Which I think were supposed to be funny. Kittens are killed, puppies are tortured, it's truly disturbing. There's also a very detailed description by the son of the mother's genitals, which kind of weirded me out see my post on incest fiction, except this is not fiction.
Once again, I have no explanation for why I didn't just stop reading, especially when I saw that the animal abuse was going to be a recurring "joke". Dec 01, debbie rated it it was amazing. Sep 04, Jamie rated it liked it. I thought this was going to be more about dumpster diving. Turns out its about a shitty childhood. The treatment of animals really upset me. Jul 02, Amy rated it it was ok Shelves: Usually I relish books about dysfunctional families, even when some of the characters are loathsome, but there is something about the characters in this book that made me very sad and disturbed.
I am indeed glad that the author is no longer in such circumstances. I got this book thinking that it would chronicle a time in the life of a family in which the members survived off of the tons of food that is wasted daily in our country. I thought that would be at the least an interesting read. Instead, Usually I relish books about dysfunctional families, even when some of the characters are loathsome, but there is something about the characters in this book that made me very sad and disturbed. Instead, this story chronicles a very sad time in this family in which the father, a narcissist of the worst kind, drags his family through hell with him, all in the name of freedom.
But this freedom is the father's freedom, with no regard to the feelings and well being of the rest of the family. And, I hate to say that the mom isn't much better.
She seems to hate herself and be powerless to protect, console or even identify with her children. I think everyone is a little crazy. We all have our faults. However, reading this book felt like watching a train wreck, so disturbing, but I couldn't look away. Oct 15, Lisa rated it it was amazing. Think your family is dysfunctional? Dirk Jamison, child of a dumpster diving father and a self-absorbed Mormon mother described by Jamison as more stupid than crazy composes a gripping and candid memoir of his extremely unconventional s childhood.
Raised in an unstable environment and battling routine physical assault from a violent sister, Jamison manages to convey his experience in a very lucid and natural style, void of psychological interpretation. Throughout the memoir, the author pro Think your family is dysfunctional? Throughout the memoir, the author provides us with the often hilarious details of concealing scavenged food in foil from his mother, building housing multiple times with his father, surviving adolescence in a Mormon community and a tumultuous relationship between his parents.
Dec 02, Tamara rated it did not like it.
All I can say is This book is garbage. This guy sees life through poo colored glasses, and I just flat-out don't believe everything he says. I realize that in any church there are bad, even evil, people lurking. But if any Sunday School teacher in my youth had written the "F" word on the church chalkboard All I can say is But if any Sunday School teacher in my youth had written the "F" word on the church chalkboard or used his butt as a watergun at a Scouting activity, there would have been heck to pay.
Perishable: A Memoir [Dirk Jamison] on donnsboatshop.com *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. Fascinatingly disturbing, this memoir chronicles seven years in the. At first glance, it appears Jamison's s Southern California childhood was an unending disaster. His father searched garbage Dumpsters.
The majority of the kids would be shocked and disgusted and would run home to tell their parents, and that guy better run for his life. I did not finish the book, it was too offensive.
All smut, no inspiration. Oct 14, Anna Boudinot rated it it was amazing Shelves: This is a non-pretentious version of Running With Scissors! Rather than use the shocking episodes from his childhood as a method to make the reader feel sorry for him, the author presents them without bias or manipulation.
It will make you realize that the problems YOU thought YOU had as a kid were nothing at all, and humble you for this reason and because the author doesn't complain. He doesn't seem to be bitter, nor does he mock his parents Perhaps it is this analytical approach that allows him to love his family despite their often severe flaws.
Learn more about Amazon Prime. Fascinatingly disturbing, this memoir chronicles seven years in the life of a distinctly unordinary American family. In , Dirk Jamison's father started having a midlife crisis that never ended, and after purposefully losing his construction job, he moved his family to a ski resort and started feeding them from dumpsters in an effort to reject money and all its trappings. They were never homeless, never desperately poor, but they lived on garbage. While Jamison struggled with adolescence, he faced a father who valued freedom more than anything, an overweight Mormon mother, and a cruel sister who delighted in physical abuse.
Hilarious and horrifying, this heartbreaking account tells the strange story of the anti-American dream. Read more Read less. Customers who bought this item also bought. Page 1 of 1 Start over Page 1 of 1. Scenes from a Life. From Publishers Weekly At first glance, it appears Jamison's s Southern California childhood was an unending disaster.
Related Video Shorts 0 Upload your video. Try the Kindle edition and experience these great reading features: Share your thoughts with other customers. Write a customer review. There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later. A good read with an excellent story idea. The book would be much improved if edited professionally for a new release. So much talent and potential here that just needed some guidance to be great. Gotta love this author's willingness to look closely at himself and share his story. Once you open this book, you won't be able to put it down until it's finished.
There's never a dull moment. Perishable has a lot in common with The Glass Castle, which is one of my favorite memoirs. Both stories make you wonder what in the hell the parents are thinking. I'm very curious about what happens to the family after the book ends. I can't wait to read the author's next book.
One person found this helpful. Kindle Edition Verified Purchase. While I enjoy a good story of family dysfunction as much as the next person, I was very disappointed in this book, especially after reading all the glowing reviews. The writing was indeed good and the author did not indulge in self-pity or over analyzing. However, I did not find any of the characters the least bit sympathetic and I found the animal abuse throughout the narrative to be a bit hard to take.
My experience was further diminished by the fact that I read the Kindle edition which was full of formatting problems and typos. I really can't recommend this book. The title of Dirk Jamison's slender memoir Perishable is a reference to the most striking oddity of the author's childhood, that his father--a man for whom the notion of responsibility was anathema--undertook to feed his family of five for a number of years by "trashing," taking recently discarded food prised from dumpsters home to the family dinner table.
This was a lifestyle choice rather than necessity. Able-bodied but unwilling to waste his time on a paying job, the author's father saw eating trash as a means of gaining free time: Less work means more time. The elder Jamison's bizarre take on life was coupled with a selfish abdication of parental responsibility.
But his father's instability, if perhaps the worst of what the author endured growing up, was not the whole of it. Jamison's mother was the better parent of the two, but she brought her own problems to the familial mix. Now "slinking off to cry with slabs of chocolate," now refusing a knee operation because she was sure it implied temporary amputation of the affected limb, Jamison's mother, the author explains, was not so much crazy as stupid: But I can see that question in their eyes, and it's a misdiagnosis I'm always grateful for.
Much preferable to the actual problem, which appears to be staggering stupidity. In short, the author's home life was unstable, and his father's mode of parenting arguably a form of abuse. Jamison and his siblings lacked dependable adult figures who were capable of making rational decisions on behalf of the family.
Jamison tells the story of his unusual childhood in spare, unflinching prose. Neither sentimental nor self-pitying, the author approaches his subject with something like journalistic dispassion. He is startlingly frank.
In fact it seems remarkable that Mr. The 10 Best Haruki Murakami Books. Diane rated it really liked it May 15, How to Increase True Openness in Your Relationship Certainly one of America's most excellent therapists deals professional recommendation on rekindling relationships via "naked intimacy"Naked Intimacy is for everybody who yearns for an intimate dating and wonders why it kind of feels so elusive. Published on April 13, There was a problem filtering reviews right now. The content automatically receives items convenient as HTML, Images, and sensory measures to use a night product of
This is most admirable not when he is detailing his family's failures but rather when he confesses to poor behavior of his own during the period. In the end Jamison's remarkable account of his peculiar upbringing is probably more universal in its scope than he intended. My guess is that a lot of readers will find much that's familiar in the book, their own imperfect familial relationships here writ more extreme. Thus Perishable isn't merely a good read. It may help you laugh at your own crazy relatives. Debra Hamel -- author of Trying Neaira: All of us grew up in families that were more or less dysfunctional.
But this one takes the cake.