Review of My Windows, My Views ...

[francesg222]

[Following is a volunteer review of "My Windows, My Views ..." by Barbara McCarthy.]

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5 out of 5 stars

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Barbara McCarthy does not like to refer to her book as a memoir, and I agree. It reads more like a journal. Indeed, it is her personal journey through a life that has spanned seven decades. Her content includes her childhood, young self, and her adult years to the present. She takes us on her journey across the world with her parents and siblings. Her father was enlisted in the Royal Air Force. Subsequently, he was deployed and stationed in different major cities throughout Europe, Asia, Canada, and the United States. She favored Australia, where she lived for many years.

She is a prolific writer figuratively sketching sites, sounds, and smells of the different cities she grew up in. The fact that she and her family moved to different cities frequently served to enhance her memories of those places. I will not go as far as to say that traveling enriched her life, because she depicts her bad memories as well as the good. However, she traveled so much that that is what she found enriching. The sites, sounds, and smells of the places and people have been etched in her memory and resulted in My Windows, My Views…My Life and Travels.

McCarthy’s book not only includes the sites and sounds of peoples and places, but also the timeline that she lived in. She is a baby boomer, growing up in the era of the fifties and sixties. Her adulthood was spent mostly in Australia, but she continues to travel and reside abroad. She is drawn to the sites and smells she grew up with and has since revisited many countries that bring back numerous memories. However, many of the sites have changed.

She took me on tour through cities that I had hoped to visit someday. Since that may not be likely, I enjoyed traveling with her. That is what I liked best about the memoir. As a writer, the thing I disliked about the story is the chronology. She did not go in sequence. However, this format may have been her editor’s decision, and it is acceptable, nonetheless.

The book appeared to be professionally edited since I could not find any errors in its formatting. Nor did she use profanity or sexual content to propel the story. I rate the book 5 out of 5 stars and recommend it to a general audience. The young can learn history, and adults can reminisce on days gone by.

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My Windows, My Views ...
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