I loved this memoir so much. What a wordsmith Tad is. Saw an excerpt from the memoir in the New Yorker and knew I had to read this book and talk with him on my show, Writers on Writing. It's months later and still I remember so much from the book.

It took me a while to get into this book. Though beautifully written, the author's preoccupation with his father and dithering opinion of himself kept me at a distance. It became human to me towards the end, when his father is infirm yet as gregarious as ever, and the author has access to the journals his father kept. It was as if a black and white memory suddenly became full color.

Okay, so I like Friend's author voice. I came to enjoy his father's struggles with being a good man, grappling with what he felt to be the right thing to do, failing, etc. And then I found myself questioning the story arc, as in, why are we spending so much time on the wife and children when we were initially led to believe the book was about the author's father? So I course-corrected and let the author lead me elsewhere. However, I was then led to page after page after page of writing about the game of squash. Squash??? So I again wondered where the author was leading me. I must say, his wife was FAR, FAR, FAR quicker to forgive than seemed realistic. This leads me to believe that we were not let in fully on her struggle to grapple with and forgive, for her process appeared quite linear and uncomplicated.

And although I enjoyed hearing about the cute things his children said and did, this contributed to my confusion regarding what the book was really about. If anyone asked me, I'd have to say, "It's about the author's family." It's not that Friend isn't a good writer, I just didn't grasp a cohesive theme.

My thanks to Crown Publishing and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review an early copy of In the Early Times: A Life Reframed.

This book tells the story of New Yorker writer Tad Friend, who is grappling with being a husband and a father as he tries to grasp who he is as a son.

In reviews, the book has been called witty, searching, and profound. I'm sad to say that I'm apparently not the target audience. I struggled with the chapters not being in chronological order and also with how wordy the book was. Ultimately, it was a DNF for me.

Don't let my review prevent you from giving Early Times a try, though!

Unfortunately, I had to abandon this memoir at about 50%. I just couldn't get into Tad Friend's musings about his life and his father's life. I guess I had expected something "hard hitting" to grab me at the beginning of the book, but I did't really read that. I love the language that Friend uses and I appreciate his desire to record his life and his relationship with his dad.

Thank you to NetGalley for allowing me to read and review In the Early Times.