Acclaimed author Barry Gifford’s most recent book, “The Boy Who Ran Away to Sea,” takes readers through the fictional childhood of Roy Colby as told through a series of short stories. These snippets of Roy’s upbringing during the 1950s and 1960s — from the beaches of Key West, Fla., to the nightclubs of Havana, and from the corner stores of Chicago to the capitals of Europe — come together to show how the people and places of your childhood reverberate throughout your life.
San Francisco-based Gifford opens the book with a cheeky disclaimer: “I have often been asked if I were interested in writing my memoirs or an autobiography. Given that the Roy stories come as close as I care to come regarding certain circumstances, I remain comfortable with their verisimilitude. They all dwell within the boundary of fiction. As I have explained elsewhere, these are stories, I made them up. Roy ages from about five years old to late adolescence. After that, with the exception of a sighting in Veracruz, I have no idea what happened to him.”
Gifford’s Roy is a precocious child, always trying to do the right thing, whether it’s helping an elderly woman get home safely or checking in on a classmate. Roy is driven by an inherent interest in other people and an ability to look past their flaws and appreciate their quirks.
Gifford introduces readers to a fantastical cast of characters – there is Sincere Lee Yerz, a classmate who forms a band with Roy and Martine Finura, who runs one of Havana’s most formidable nightclubs, where Roy celebrates his sixth birthday. Meanwhile, Tomorrow Night White is a neighbor boy whom Roy sees later acting in a spaghetti Western. Then there are the recurring, colorful characters such as Roy’s mother, Kitty, who trips through life looking for the right man, and Roy’s father, Rudy, who runs a liquor store/pharmacy with ties to the mob. Each story, a short vignette that focuses on a different individual, memory or tale, offers a succinct piece of wisdom or a universal truth. For example, when Roy’s college friend Lance Macmaster recounts a childhood trauma that resulted in claustrophobia, he shares with Roy his mother’s response to this fear: “Don’t do anything you might have to go to prison for, you won’t like it.”
阅读“跑到海上的男孩”的感觉就像看着透过视图主的文学相当，每次点击每次点击的经典红色玩具就会显示一张新照片。然而，通过整个卷轴来实现方式，您可以看到各个图像如何创建完整的场景。While each story that the Chicago-born Gifford tells focuses on one very small moment in Roy’s life, by the end of the book you have a comprehensive portrait of his boyhood and an overwhelming understanding of who Roy is – a child who sees the world with unflinching curiosity, a natural sense of compassion and a love of exploration.
The Boy Who Ran Away to Sea
By Barry Gifford
(Seven Stories Press; 272 pages; $18.95)
The Roxie Theater presents Barry Gifford:Screening of “Roy’s World: Barry Gifford’s Chicago” followed by a Q&A with director Rob Christopher and book signing. 3:45 p.m. May 7. $14 general admission, free or discounted for members. 3117 16th Street, S.F.www.roxie.com
City Lights presents Barry Gifford:Virtual event celebrating his new poetry collection “How Chet Baker Died.” Free, registration required. 6 p.m. May 11.https://citylights.com/events/barry-gifford/