4 out of 4 stars
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I have to admit that I was initially hesitant about reviewing The Big Yank: Memoir of a Boy Growing Up Irish by J.P. Sexton due to the sheer length of it (about 400 pages on Kindle) but I am so glad I took the chance. This is not your typical memoir. Coming-of-age stories, even about boys in Ireland, are nearly a dime a dozen. This one, however, is a life story to make you laugh, cry, and shake your head in disbelief, all on the same page.
The book begins when his parents decide to pack up the young J.P. and his little brother Jimmy from their life in New York and begin anew in Donegal, Ireland in the late 1960s. Once settled, the whole family is recruited into the less-than-legal means of making a profit by smuggling goods across the border from war-torn Derry. This is only the beginning of the father’s crazy “business” ideas. While J.P. and Jimmy get up to hilarious hijinks around the town and at school, his father thought up ideas like living in a double decker bus on the side of a windy mountain to save some money on rent. Of course, young J.P. always has to carry the heavy burden of emptying the pot when the still-growing family lives without a bathroom.
The story follows the author from the wild pranks and dangerous games of little boys let loose in the Irish countryside, through chasing the girls as a teenager wearing a rock star’s shoes, all the way to his adulthood. However, the story also follows the physical and mental abuse suffered at the hands of his parents. Even from a young age, the father and mother (aka the Big Yank and Sarah the Slasher) are downright cruel and violent to their eldest son. The recounting of a scared little boy cowering from his father’s size 14 shoes is absolutely heartbreaking, and the way they speak to him through his life is even worse. However, not all of the relatives are so bad. The kooky old drunken grandfather is hysterical and the mischievous uncle can always be counted on to chat up the girls. Despite the pain, the humor is never lost.
J.P. Sexton is a born storyteller. I found no spelling errors or grammar mistakes and, more importantly perhaps, I was never bored. There were a few instances of confusing time jumps, but this actually adds to the illusion of a man telling you the story as he remembers it. The descriptive detail is clear enough I can perfectly imagine every scene, but does not slow down the pace of story. The Irish accents are made almost palpable by the Irish slang and turn of phrases in the dialogue (a glossary is provided at the end). However, this also includes a great deal of swearing.
The writing style is very personal; the first person point of view adds to the feeling that this is an intimate conversation with the author. By the end of the book, I feel invested in the characters and I want to know more. There are tantalizing hints as to what kind of adventures his life entailed after the conclusion of the memoir, and I do hope there is more to be seen from this author. In fact, I went so far as to look up some of the author’s poetry available online after finishing the memoir.
I wholeheartedly give The Big Yank 4 out of 4 stars! However, this book may not be suitable to sensitive readers due to the graphic child abuse, the amount of foul language, and the disrespectful view of female classmates from a teenage boy. Despite this, I find no other flaws in the book and I highly recommend it. (I also recommend listening to a good Irish music playlist while reading this book to add a little extra depth to the experience.)
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"The Big Yank"
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