Burning Thoughts

The first thing that struck me about The Burn Journals was the style in which it is written. The narrator just talks about what happened to him. Its like the reader is there in his mind. There is no sign of self-pity or anger or really any other feeling than just the facts. I can't imagine how strange it must have been for the author to write this, because really he is reliving every second that he remembers in order to write it down exactly in the way that it happened. It doesn't sound like a man reflecting back on something that happened when he was in eighth grade, it sounds like reading an eighth grader's thoughts on something that's happening to him right at the moment. The author sticks to the eighth grade point of view extremely well. He also doesn't hold anything back. The reader is experiencing everything with the narrator. This is an effective way of telling the story because it makes the reader's connection with it much more intimate, it feels more real. Also the story never appears sad because the narrator makes it very clear that there is no self-pity, even when he describes his pain or shame its with a matter-of-fact tone. Even throughout the story it is clear that he feels this way about himself as he goes through it all. For example when a nurse tells him he should be glad that he doesn't remember everything he replies "I don't care if they are terrible memories. They're mine," (36). This attitude makes the memoir readable and bearable because even as the author discusses horrible situations the reader sees it through his thoughts which take out all of the drama and excess emotion from the experience.