Mark Feuerer

When setting out to review this book I found it difficult to consider the “star” rating. I thought the idea behind the memoir was great but felt the execution lacked conviction. It is perhaps more appropriate that I award a rating based on how the book left me feeling rather than the actual words on the page (which weren’t great!). Thankfully this is a short memoir to read, I say thankfully because of its structure. The chapters begin with her time at Tent City in Arizona and then with a small break they move on to a stage in the process leading up to her incarceration, which is fine until you get to a point where she is approaching the end of her jail sentence and then begin reading about the day before it begins. It just doesn’t flow well.

I hadn’t heard of Tent City before acquiring this memoir and I subsequently went on to read information on the internet about the place. Definitely no soft option for anyone in there but with regards this memoir, I was fascinated to see that even though she was only jailed for 10 days, that she left every morning about 6am for about 13 hours. Wow! So whilst it was definitely an emotional experience for her (and one I definitely wouldn’t want to go through), she still had free days. I found the remainder of the processing from her DUI very interesting to read about, such as the changes to her licence and the equipment she needed in her car etc. This was informative and really shows how her life changed, more so for me than her 10 days of jail time.

The biggest dislike of this memoir was her preaching. Not everyone drinks and drives and this is how she comes across, not everyone breaks the law every time they go out or takes a drive across country with a beer cooler in the boot/trunk for fun. At times (well a lot of the time) it became a sermon whereas when she was informing it was much more appropriate. I felt some of the routines were too detailed, such as I wasn’t bothered about her taking the dogs to the vet or going to watch a film (and I certainly wasn’t bothered knowing which film or how much). I would also have liked to hear what she thought her family might be feeling. I thought the additions to the end of the memoir were good, such as explaining what is wrong with the equipment that DUI offenders have to use for a year after their offences – there were some great suggestions added in here.

So, as I said at the beginning I would award a star not so much for the execution but how I felt about the memoir afterwards. I’ve learned a lot about Tent City from this and also the processes involved in a DUI in a different country; I also think even though the execution of the memoir is poor it is highly readable (even though it does need some editing!). Therefore, overall I will remember this memoir in a way I haven’t remembered some that I’ve read meaning it gets 4 stars.… (mehr)