A family friend “Fred” often recorded his reflections in the back of his books. “MY BOOK, MY NOTES” he announced before noting reflections, disagreements, favorite paragraphs etc. I do this with a dog-ear to a page and on this blog but not to Fred’s detail.
Fred and my dad would exchange books, several at once. My friends do this too. Recently, my parents passed me a book of Fred’s they found while cleaning out shelves. They thought I might enjoy reading Fred’s notes in the back of The Death of Santini: The Story of a Father and His Son before I was to pass it along to Fred’s daughter. Fred had also noted in the front of the book that it had been a gift from her, Christmas ’13.
And yes I did enjoy Fred’s notes in the back – so much so that I ended up reading the book itself. I loved this book. How Conroy writes about both the horror and humor of his dysfunctional family is completely fascinating.
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