Search - Fourteen: Growing Up Alone in a Crowd

Fourteen Growing Up Alone in a Crowd
Author: Stephen Zanichkowsky

The haunting story of a boy who couldn't find any room to breathe until he left his thirteen siblings behind and withdrew to the world inside his head--only to emerge forty years later, still alone. Born eighth in a family on its way to becoming almost twice that size, Stephen Zanichkowsky immediately learned that his life was to be no Cheaper ... more »by the Dozen romp. Instead, he and his siblings fended for themselves to avoid the wrath of their father and the heartbreaking emotional distance of their mother. Silence and terror ruled. A brother was taken away by the family one day, never to return. A sister was born with a mental deficiency that was never explained. As the years went by, each child left home as soon as he or she turned eighteen, creating unaccustomed "space" by skipping the others' weddings and graduations. With artless narrative style, Zanichkowsky embarks on a journey back to the family's Lithuanian Catholic roots in Brooklyn and follows its members on a tortured climb to suburban comfort that, for him, culminates in his escape from home and the draft. Along the way, he seeks answers to lifelong questions: Why was his father so angry and uncontrollable? Why did his parents continue to have children when they didn't have enough love, patience, or money to spread around? Forty years later after leaving home, Zanichkowsky reaches out to his siblings--most of them divorced or living alone--and discovers a group of people still learning how to form relationships with others. In the process, the boy that once retreated into his own world emerges, whole and self-possessed. From Fourteen: I was born into a system with an established order, with people cemented into positions long before I got there. As I got older, the biggest kids gradually filled me in with things I needed to know, as if I were a new hand at the factory and needed to learn which drawers certain tools were kept in. They showed me where the shoe polish was kept; how to fry an egg (because on Sundays we could have our egg fried or scrambled if we didn't want clucked); where to put my laundry in the basement. I learned about Mom's miscarriages, because all the rest of us resemble a line of ducks and outsiders sometimes asked about the three-year gap between Rita and Jane. The bigger kids told me about our religion, our relatives, our nationality. When bath night was and how often to change my underwear. (No one, however, had an answer as to why all the girls had the same middle name: Marie.)

ISBN-13: 9780465094011
ISBN-10: 0465094015
Publication Date: 5/1/2003
Pages: 256
Rating:

Currently 4.1/5 Stars.

4.1 stars, based on 9 ratings

Publisher: Basic Books
Book Type: Paperback
Other Versions: Hardcover
Members Wishing: 0
Reviews: Member | Amazon | Write a Review

Similar books to this author and title:

Members who requested this book also requested:

$Fingernail Moon : The True Story of a Mother\'s Flight to Protect Her Daughter$

A Hole in the World: An American Boyhood

The Golden Mountain - Beyond the American Dream

Top Member Book Reviews

Currently 4.5/5 Stars.

Libby S. (Libratsie) reviewed Fourteen: Growing Up Alone in a Crowd on 6/26/2007 + 344 more book reviews

3 member(s) found this review helpful.

I was expecting a celebration of growing up in a large family. This is far from it, and yet I was pleasantly surprised. The author's childhood was not pleasant. His mother was worn out and in poor health, his father distant and seemingly unloving and certainly abusive, and there were just too many children for any of them to receive individual attention other than his parents' version of discipline. This will be hard for many people to read, but the book is honestly written with the author even pointing out some memories of which he isn't sure.

Read All 3 Book Reviews of "Fourteen Growing Up Alone in a Crowd"

Please Log in to Rate these Book Reviews

Currently 4/5 Stars.

Jessica J. (dumpysunshine) reviewed Fourteen: Growing Up Alone in a Crowd on 2/19/2007 + 23 more book reviews

Excellent memoir of a trouble life growing up in a large family. Not for the faint of heart as it was very forthright and honest but also incredibly sincere.

Read All Book Reviews of "Fourteen Growing Up Alone in a Crowd"

Genres:

Tell a friend about this book...

Search - Fourteen: Growing Up Alone in a Crowd

Top Member Book Reviews

Please Log in to Rate these Book Reviews