Where's My Wand?: One Boy's Magical Triumph Over Alienation and Shag Carpeting
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Augusten Burroughs, David Sedaris, and David Rakoff have all produced winning memoirs of their demented, alternately heartrending and sidesplitting late- twentieth-century American childhoods. Now, first-time author Eric Poole joins their ranks with his chronicle of a childhood gone hilariously and heartbreakingly awry in the Midwest of the 1970s. From the age of eight through early adolescence, Poole sought refuge from his obsessive-compulsive mother, sadistic teachers, and sneering schoolyard thugs in the Scotchgarded basement of his family's suburban St. Louis tract house. There, emulating his favorite TV character, Endora from Bewitched, he wrapped himself in a makeshift caftan and cast magical spells in an effort to maintain control over the rapidly shifting ground beneath his feet. But when a series of tragic events tested Eric's longstanding belief that magic can vanquish evil, he began to question the efficacy of his incantations, embarking on a spiritual journey that led him to discover the magic that comes only from within. People Magazine - Judith Newman Fragrant as it is of Love's Baby Soft perfume and hormones, Poole's memoir of growing up gay and Baptist in the '70s would be worth reading if it were just gut-splittingly funny (he describes himself as the kind of boy who would only crawl beneath a car "to retrieve a Cher album that had rolled under it"). But Wand is also a deeply moving account of a boy's attempt to control his world with his own brand of magic. That world includes his sometimes terrifying family (his OCD mother makes him rake the shag carpet every night), an armless best friend and a golden boy Poole hoped to anoint with - well, Poole kind of thought it was the spirit of Jesus. It's Poole's mother, though, who is the standout character. Annihilating and loving by turns, she makes Sophie Portnoy look like June Cleaver, yet Poole finds her humor and humanity. We should all have such tenderness toward our parents.
