HOUSE OF PRAYER NO. 2—A WRITER'S JOURNEY HOME

Author Mark Richard’s flat monotone adds little to his award-winning memoir of growing up as a child with special needs in the American South amid racial tensions, his father’s alcoholism, and his mother’s religious fervor. If anything, his tone takes away from his story. Further, his use of the third person in speaking about himself as the “special child” adds distance and detachment that are never overcome. His bland, even narration contrasts sharply with the graphic and gritty descriptive passages of penises, “bloody snot,” and “bloody sheets.” Confusing descriptions of a child who bites strangers yet also sees angels on Easter morning add to the sense of contradiction between content and delivery. Accounts of the charity hospital he spent time in as a child as well as his torturous operations, slow recoveries, and spiritual awakening, in spite of his poor delivery, are well done. G.D.W. © AudioFile 2012, Portland, Maine [Published: JANUARY 2012]