MADreads

This one, truly stranger than fiction

October 22nd, 2008 Lisa - Central

Crisis, Pursued by Disaster, Followed Closely by Catastrophe: A Memoir of Life on the Run is quite the title. And, coincidentally, it is quite the book. The author, Mike O’Connor, is a journalist who has worked for NPR, CBS and The New York Times covering conflicts from Central America to Yugoslavia to Israel and Palestine. He uses his journalistic talents to uncover a mystery that had torn his family apart, one that couldn’t be uncovered until both of his parents died.

About a year after his mother died, O’Connor finally opens a box she had always kept with her.  He was hoping the contents held some clues to why his parents would uproot the family, leave almost everything behind, and flee, sometimes in the middle of the night. The first time it happens, O’Connor is 9. Living in Texas, they suddenly go on “vacation” and end up in a tiny village in Mexico, staying in a few rooms in the house of the town’s matriarch. Then suddenly, they go home again. A few years later, back to Mexico, in the same village, this time staying for many years. His dad would return to Texas, sometimes for weeks at a time, sometimes sending money, sometimes not. It gets bad enough that O’Connor, though barely a teen, works on the streets, selling pillows, giving tourist guided tours, and even a little pimping. But dad always comes home, and it is obvious to the reader that he adores his wife and children.

The family has a kind of code. They don’t talk about extended family - the kids meet only one aunt while their parents are alive. They never admit to fleeing - they’re always on an adventure. They don’t talk about the things they left behind. An undercurrent of fear prevents the kids from breaking the code.

But as O’Connor and his siblings get older, they begin to chafe under the family’s unspoken rules. And this wreaks even greater havoc for the family. At one point, to get away, O’Connor hitches with a friend from Mexico to California, hoping to find their fortune, but ends up arrested as a juvenile runaway. His father refuses to come get him for weeks. His sister applies for college loans, and causes yet another flight. The family gets poorer and poorer.

I’ll not ruin the secret, but the truth about this family’s mystery is infuriating. That this family had to endure such insecurity and poverty for so minor a reason made me so mad and sad. This story is riveting, suspenseful and just plain good.

Entry Filed under: Memoir & Biography, Nonfiction