A List of Things That Didn't Kill Me

Reviewed by: Brooke Faulkner - McArthur Library, 207 Main St., Southern Maine Library District

Review Date: June 9, 2015

Review

This memoir by debut author Schmidt recounts his experiences growing up with an emotionally and physically abusive father who moved him whose rejection of mainstream ideals did not extend to acknowledging his cultural power as an adult and his son’s inherent vulnerability as his child. Moved from home to home frequently, Schmidt vividly recollects his father’s arrest during a drug raid when he was 3, which lands him in his religious grandparents’ home for a turn. After he rejoins his father, he struggles as an elementary and middle schooler to find friends and find people with whom he's comfortable. After his father comes out as gay, Schmidt is provided with support at home by one of his live-in boyfriends, but things unravel rapidly when the AIDS crisis of the early 1980's hits and his father becomes HIV positive. Often agonizing, this employs a matter-of-fact, at times almost sardonic tone, as it describes distressing abuse in which a kid truly functions as an adult out of necessity. Troubling, moving and unflinchingly honest, this memoir will be best appreciated by older teens and adults who are fans of the work of Augusten Burroughs and the like.

Overall Book Score: good