The sad, tender, and extremely funny memoir of a boyhood few thought
he would survive, including the unforgettable mother and hilarious
grandmother who raised him
A book to be relished by lovers of such works as The Glass Castle,
Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight, and Angela's Ashes
Everything readers love about consummate storyteller and beloved
bestselling novelist Wayne Johnston's work is on full display in
Jennie's Boy incredible characters, brilliant language, and a deep
sense of place.
Wayne Johnston's family -- his mother, father, and three brothers --
were always on the move. The year he turned eight, the most memorable
year of an unusual childhood, they found themselves occupying a wreck of
a house in the community his mother Jennie was from: Goulds,
Newfoundland was not so much a place as a scattering of homes along an
unpaved road.
Everyone knew him as "Jennie's boy," and his tiny, ferocious mother felt
judged for Wayne's sickly, skinny condition -- he had to spend much of
his time in a bed on wheels that was moved from room to room. While his
brothers went off to school, Wayne passed his days with his witty,
eccentric maternal grandmother, Lucy, whose son Leonard had died at the
age of seven and whose photo stood alongside a statue of the Blessed
Virgin.
Jennie's Boy recalls a boyhood full of pain, laughter, tenderness, and
the kind of wit for which Newfoundlanders are known. By that wit, and by
their love for each other -- so often expressed in the most unloving
ways -- he, and they, survived.
