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Magic, shag carpeting combine in new memoir
(by Jennifer Alexander - May 26, 2010)
Some memoirs succeed because readers identify similarities between the author’s life and their own. Others are appealing because the author’s life is totally foreign to the reader. Perhaps the best memoirs balance common human difficulties and peculiar individual approaches to solving those problems.
Eric Poole successfully combines sometimes bizarre family memories with more general themes of adolescence in his light and charming memoir. He writes about growing up in St. Louis in the 1970s in Where’s My Wand? One Boy’s Magical Triumph over Alienation and Shag Carpeting.
When Poole writes about his mother’s high standards for cleanliness, some readers may nod a bit in recognition. But Poole’s mother takes things beyond what many may remember. He writes about his nightly chore of raking the shag carpeting to erase all footprints before bed and his mother’s aversion to water droplets in the sink. She screams, “Why, God, why is there water in this sink?” Poole often describes his mother ironing; she irons sheets, towels, place mats, even the tongues of a pair of Keds tennis shoes.
Poole organizes his memories around his childhood obsession with the TV show Bewitched. He was intrigued by the notion that a wave of the hand or twitch of the nose could make real changes in his world. He was especially fond of the character Endora, Samantha’s mother. Draping himself in an old bedspread, he becomes the “Endora of St. Louis” and tries to use magic to keep the dangers of the world at bay.
Poole faces some common trials of adolescence and some less common trials. He is bullied at school. He feels abandoned when his older sister would rather spend time with her friends than play Monopoly with him. He develops a crush on a boy in his Baptist church group, the Ambassadors for Christ. He jealously competes with the highly accomplished children of his parents’ friends. He discovers a neighbor shooting rabbits and squirrels behind their houses. He describes his parents’ relationship as an ongoing performance of Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? without an intermission.
Poole deals with these problems first by escaping into his imagination. With his chenille bedspread as a prop, he “casts spells” in his basement and conjures up solutions to his problems. He imagines himself befriending his tormentor, playing Chutes and Ladders with his sister and enjoying a peaceful Christmas Eve. What actually helps Poole through his difficulties turns out to be quite different from what he has imagined.
Although Poole has imagined a scenario in which his school tormentor is weakened, his troubles are actually temporarily solved by his friendship with Stacy, an armless girl who is much tougher than the boys bothering Poole. While Stacy is at school, she protects Poole from the other bullies. Before a family dinner with his father’s boss, Poole casts a spell to guarantee that his mother will not do anything to ruin the night. Poole’s mother does end up insulting the man and outwardly creating disaster. But she does so defending Poole against the man’s insults. “I was beginning to realize that my magic could bring results I hadn’t asked for, but valued just the same,” Poole writes.
This sweet and funny memoir is full of popular culture references of the 1970s. Poole’s sister douses herself with both Charlie and Love’s Fresh Lemon perfume. In addition to Bewitched, Poole watches Kojak and Starsky and Hutch. A friend brings Jarts for the yard, and Poole tries to be the 98th caller to KSLQ. The painful lessons Poole learns are wrapped up in a lighthearted story filled with happy memories.
As a young boy, magic seems an appropriate navigation tool for Poole in a confusing world. As he matures, Poole gradually realizes that while some good and bad fortune is random, his misdeeds and triumphs are his own doing. He can’t rely on magic to get along. Poole’s journey toward trusting in his own strength and believing in himself is a pleasant trip for all.
• Eric Poole will discuss and sign Where’s My Wand? at 7 p.m. June 10 at Left Bank Books, 399 N. Euclid Ave. Call 367-6731 for more information.
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