Review: The Good Neighbor: The Life and Work of Fred Rogers (by Maxwell King)

 My Rating: 4 stars

It’s a beautiful day in the neighborhood, a beautiful day for a neighbor, won’t you be mine, won’t you be mine, won’t you be my neighbor?

Just hearing this opening line brings back so many wonderful memories for me!  Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood was one of the shows I used to watch almost religiously back as a child growing up in the 1980s.  Even though I moved on to other shows when I became an adult, Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood had left such an impression on me that many of the “lessons” I had learned from the show continue to stay with me even now.  I loved so many aspects of the show back then: the songs, the puppets, the adventures, and of course, the gentle soul with the soothing voice who brought everything together for us day in and day out – yes, Fred Rogers was my childhood hero, the father figure I wish I’d had.  

Given the above, it should come as no surprise that when I found out a few months ago about a new biography being published about Fred Rogers’s life and his iconic show, I just knew that this was a book I absolutely had to read.  I was disappointed when I wasn’t able to get my hands on an advance copy prior to publication, but luckily, my library came through for me and I was finally able to secure a copy to read (though only after having to wait several weeks on the “hold” list).  Reading this book was quite an emotional experience for me, as it not only brought back many fond memories of the show, it also gave me so much insight into the life of Fred Rogers and the one-of-a-kind person he was.  Prior to reading this biography, I had no idea how much effort had gone into producing his show and how every aspect of the production – from the dialogue to the music to the puppetry, even such things as the length of each episode -- was meticulously thought out.  What stood out for me the most though was how genuinely Mister Rogers cared about children and how devoted he was to their education and overall well-being.  One of the things that made Fred Rogers truly unique, especially for someone in the world of showbiz, was the fact that “what you saw was what you got” – meaning that the gentle, kind fatherly figure you saw on the TV screen, he was the exact same way in real life.  As Mister Rogers had said in previous interviews, he was neither an actor nor an entertainer, he was always just being himself.  It’s interesting that back then, his view that children should be respected for who they are and their thoughts and feelings should be respected as well, was actually considered “radical” thought, with some critics likening it to “coddling” children to the point of spoiling them, yet later on, as thoughts on child development evolved and progressed, his viewpoint was actually welcomed, encouraged and even held up as the “gold” standard for how to treat children.

I will be honest in saying that I find it impossible to sum up the legacy of Fred Rogers and how much he meant to those of us who grew up watching his show, in one biography about his life, regardless of how substantive or thorough that biography is -- which is why, for me, this review is so hard to write because I know I will never be able to give it the justice it deserves.  In that sense, this book is a breath of fresh air in that, given the negativity-filled world we live in today, it is a nostalgic reprieve and a reminder of what it means to be a genuinely humble, honest, kind person who truly cared about others.  As far as “celebrity” biographies go, this one I would definitely recommend, not because it was particularly well-written (in fact, the writing was actually the worse part of this book to be honest – the other reviews that mentioned the repetitiveness of the writing were actually spot-on).  Rather, this book should be read for its subject matter and, perhaps, as a rare positive boost given the current world we live in today. 

Review: A Ladder to the Sky (by John Boyne)

My Rating: 4.5 stars

Last year, there was one book that I not only kept seeing repeatedly atop many “best of” lists, I also saw that nearly every one of my Goodreads friend who had read the book (and whose opinions I trust) raved about it.  Of course, I immediately put the book on my TBR and even bought a special annotated hardcover version with the goal of reading it as soon as my time allowed.  That book, as I’m sure most have guessed already, was John Boyne’s award-winning masterpiece The Heart’s Invisible Furies.  Unfortunately (and much to my disappointment), things didn’t turn out the way I wanted and I ended up not being able to read the book last year as planned (though with that said, in planning my 2019 reading goals, I have prioritized the book as a “must read” for next year).  When I saw that Boyne would have a new book out this year, a novel entitled A Ladder to the Sky, I just knew that I could not repeat the “missed opportunity” from last year, so I jumped on getting an advance copy and prioritized it for this month.  Now, having finished this brilliantly written novel, I’m so glad I was able to get to it and finally experience for myself Boyne’s masterful storytelling (not to mention I think I’ve found myself yet another author to add to my “favorites” list)! 

Truth be told, I felt conflicted the entire time I read this book.  On the one hand, I absolutely loved the writing (to say that the writing in here is “brilliant” is actually an understatement – it’s so good that I can’t think of a proper word to describe it that would give it justice) and the story was well-executed, powerful, and magnificently told (I was engrossed in the story from first page to the last).  In the area of character development, Boyne’s skill is beyond phenomenal, as the meticulous way he crafted the character of Maurice Swift – a “protagonist” so without morals and without a single redeeming quality about him that it was impossible not to hate him (I actually loathed him with every fiber of my being) – yet at the same time, the character is written in a way that is so realistic and utterly believable that there were many moments where I felt like I was reading about a real person instead of a fictional character.  Never have I read a book where I despised the main “protagonist” so much that I almost didn’t want to continue reading after part 2 because I was so overwhelmingly disgusted with Maurice’s actions up to that point that I didn’t think I could bear reading any more about his bad deeds without wanting to pull my hair out.  The only reason I persevered was because I absolutely HAD TO KNOW whether Maurice would get his comeuppance in the end (and in another first for me -- as I read every subsequent page after that middle section, I hoped that the ending would be satisfying, but more importantly, I actually “prayed” that the ending would involve the character’s demise).  Of course, I’m not going to spoil it for those who’ve yet had the chance to read this, so I’m not going to say anything further about the plot or my feelings about the ending.

Bottom line, this was a fantastic read, one that I can’t recommend highly enough!  Rating-wise, this was easily a 5 star read given how much I loved the magnificent writing and the engaging story (plus parts of the story and the dialogue between some characters did give me food for thought and made me ponder some previously-held beliefs), but I ended up giving 4.5 (rounded down) because I hated the character of Maurice so much (and disliked many of the other characters as well) that I just couldn’t bring myself to rate it higher.  With that said though, I will echo the sentiments of many of the other reviewers here in saying that if you haven’t read a John Boyne novel yet, rectify that by reading this one.  I personally intend to go a step further in that I plan to read as many of his previous novels as I can while I eagerly wait to see what Boyne has in store for us next!

Received ARC from Hogarth Press and Crown Publishing via Penguin First to Read program.