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Puddin': The Autobiography of a Baby: A Memoir in Prose Poems
Puddin’: The Autobiography of a Baby is a memoir. It’s not fantasy.
It is the story of a baby—me—during my first fourteen months, leading up to the birth of David. It’s told from the perspective and in the voice of a baby. Each of this small book’s 101 chapters is imagined. Yet, each is rooted in reality, in facts and feelings.
It is the story of a baby—me—during my first fourteen months, leading up to the birth of David. It’s told from the perspective and in the voice of a baby. Each of this small book’s 101 chapters is imagined. Yet, each is rooted in reality, in facts and feelings.
130 pages, Paperback
Published March 7, 2023
1 person want to read
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November 16, 2023
“I am a scream no one can hear.” In no place does the baby refer to his parents; they are simply called he and she. It is Aunt who assumes the nurturing role in this novel. “I hear Aunt in the flat. I smile. I know she will pick me up and smile at me and our eyes will lock. I know she will come in soon. I hear her.”
“My eyes grow large when I see Aunt. My smile grows wide. I make sounds in my throat. I want to make a line to her. She calls me Puddin’. I want to say Aunt to her…She hands me the book with the dogs and cats. Aunt gave me the book. I know the black things are words. There are words in the sheets that…she reads in her chair. She says words to me. Her hands say to me to stay here…I want a line that is strong that I can share. I need to be a big one for that. But I have a line to Aunt when I see her.”
Like Ian McEwan’s novel Nutshell, Reardon’s memoir Puddin’ translates “the inchoate thoughts and sensations of an infant” into a language of single syllable words that hint at “the simplicity and complexity of a baby’s mind.” Puddin’ interweaves fiction, poetry and autobiography on the loom of who a baby is, what s/he experiences, and how s/he gains the groundwork that make it “possible to go forward into life sustained by deep hope.”
“My eyes grow large when I see Aunt. My smile grows wide. I make sounds in my throat. I want to make a line to her. She calls me Puddin’. I want to say Aunt to her…She hands me the book with the dogs and cats. Aunt gave me the book. I know the black things are words. There are words in the sheets that…she reads in her chair. She says words to me. Her hands say to me to stay here…I want a line that is strong that I can share. I need to be a big one for that. But I have a line to Aunt when I see her.”
Like Ian McEwan’s novel Nutshell, Reardon’s memoir Puddin’ translates “the inchoate thoughts and sensations of an infant” into a language of single syllable words that hint at “the simplicity and complexity of a baby’s mind.” Puddin’ interweaves fiction, poetry and autobiography on the loom of who a baby is, what s/he experiences, and how s/he gains the groundwork that make it “possible to go forward into life sustained by deep hope.”
Displaying 1 of 1 review