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When he was a senior in high school, Jack was asked to write an autobiography. The purpose of the assignment was to examine his past to see how he came to where he is in his life today, and then he would have an idea of where he wanted to go with his life once he graduated from high school. What he discovered was that he did not define his life, but that his life was defined by his relationship with Christine. They have been friends, neighbors, and sometimes lovers. They have been there for each other during the worst times of their lives. Now if they could only get their relationship right. "Life," by author Jack Gunthridge, is a story about a boy who defines himself through a woman as he is trying to become a man.
Life: An Autobiography as Told by Jack Gunthridge
Jack Gunthridge
CreateSpace (2008)
ISBN 9781434843326
Reviewed by Avni Gupta (age 15) for Reader Views (1/09)
“Life: An Autobiography as Told by Jack Gunthridge” was actually a lot better than I expected it to be. When I got it, I was really disappointed by how small it was. When I started reading it, however, I started liking it. It was pretty graphic though, so if you haven’t heard about sex (or haven’t learned about it at school), you definitely don’t want to read it until you know that stuff. There are sexual innuendos all over the place. It was actually a really good book though.
It starts out with Jack telling that he has to write an autobiography for a project. He starts out telling about himself and Christine. The whole book is told from different people’s perspectives, Jack’s narrating his part of the story and then Christine and Jack’s other friends telling other parts.
My absolute favorite part about the book was the cover. The bear showed that the author is still young at heart even though he isn’t a child anymore. The word life written in rainbow font shows that even though life gives you lemons at times, if you look at everything the bright way, nothing will ever seem that bad.
Overall, I would say that this book was good, but kind of confusing. A lot of times, I couldn’t tell what was happening so I had to reread passages or even chapters to understand what the author was getting at. When the point of view changes throughout the book, many times you are left wondering as to what has happened in the pages that you have just read.
Confusing parts aside, this was a very cute love story that showed loss and gain and how one girl helped a guy find himself and learn who he should really be. I would recommend “Life: An Autobiography as Told by Jack Gunthridge” to anyone on a voyage to find their self, because once you have seen someone else’s insight into their life, your life becomes easier to understand.
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