Book Review: I Was a Child by Bruce Eric Kaplan

Title: I Was a Child

Author: Bruce Eric Kaplan

Genre: Memoir

Number of Pages: 208

Rating: B-

Recommended?: Yes

---

This was a really quick read, so I’m going to write a short review for it. I Was a Child is a slight but entertaining memoir with cartoons interspersed throughout. Bruce Eric Kaplan didn’t have a great relationship with his parents, but it’s not an ‘abuse and woe’ type of childhood memoir. There’s a lot of pop culture from that time period (70’s-80’s.) I thought the pop culture references were interesting because I hadn’t heard of a lot of the movies and TV programs that were mentioned throughout the book.

The artwork isn’t great but it’s simple, straightforward and it goes well with the idiosyncratic style of the narrative. I guess the issue I had with this book was that it didn’t have any emotional impact. The book ends with the deterioration and death of his parents, but I felt curiously unmoved. That said, I thought this was a cool idea (vignette-memories accompanied by illustrations) and I enjoyed reading it.

Advertisement