Half the House: A Memoir

Half the House: A Memoir

Half the House is the story of a family repeatedly visited by death and suffering; of a boy burdened with a terrible secret; of a father and son estranged by grief and anger. Richard Hoffman recalls his boyhood in postwar, blue collar Allentown, PA, a world of breweries and ballfields, by turns idyllic and brutal. He depicts his family's struggles to maintain their dignity while caring for two of his brothers, who are terminally ill, and reveals how, under such circumstances, hope and denial become one; love and rage are inextricably fused; and silence and unreality threaten. Hoffman's work has appeared in literary journals such as the Hudson Review, Kansas Quarterly, and Shenandoah; he currently works at a health clinic. His childhood, which he recounts in this memoir, was shattered by the deaths of two young brothers with muscular distrophy, abuse from his father, and sexual molestation by a coach. For a period, Hoffman himself turned to alcohol and drugs. His memoir is ultimately a story of love, reconciliation, and triumph over adversity. Hoffman's spare style makes his story all the more affecting, as he skillfully interweaves the beautiful and ugly details of growing up in a working-class family in Allentown, Pennsylvania. Returning home to confront his father, Hoffman writes, "I was shrinking....I felt a split-second shock that my feet reached the floor." In the end, he does become a man, reconciles with his father, and brings his own children to visit. His memoir will be of interest to public libraries as well as to some academic and special ones.?Nancy Shires, East Carolina Univ., Greenville, N.C. Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.