Brad Land

A different kind of memoir. Not so much because of the content, but in large part because of the style of writing.

When a sophomore in college, the author was kidnapped, beaten, and left by the side of a road, his car stolen. It may be that the experience traumatized him so much that he could not clearly remember details. Certainly he did not remember the faces of the two men who beat him up, only remembering them as a "smile" and "breath". This may be why he writes in a foggy kind of impressionistic way. Or it might have just felt like the right way to tell this story.

Later, when he finally returns to college he decides to follow his younger brother into a fraternity. The rituals involved in "rushing" and then pledging take up three months of college life and include a number of activities designed to humiliate. It is too much like the attack Land suffered not that long ago. While he is determined to go on with it so he doesn't seem like a wuss a fellow pledge, Will, seems almost desperate to get in. His desperation reeks, in fact.

Ultimately Land makes a decision that seems right for him but doesn't feel all that good. He is left wondering just who he is, who he has become, and what this college experience has to teach him.… (mehr)

The trend of twenty and thirtysomethings writing memoirs continues in this memoir of one man's struggle to be accepted by his younger brother's fraternity. The writing was okay, but the story left me a little bored. Is a semester of hazing enough to hang a memoir on? In this case, the answer is no. There's little surprising here. Land joins a fraternity, is treated badly (or hazed) and he and his brother grow apart. As hazing rituals go, the descriptions within Goat seem pretty mild. Land's relationship with his brother, and the other men in the fraternity, aren't quite compelling enough to carry the memoir.
… (mehr)