JUST REMEMBER THE HAPPY HOURS

Burns’ memoir packs a lifetime’s worth of trauma into 18 years.

The 1950s through the early 1970s were rife with societal change. Burns, then called Jimmy, grew up during these years, facing more chaos than most. His family was outwardly well-off, but his father, Jim, and mother, Georgia, had both grown up in poverty; they aspired to be accepted in the world of affluence and experienced economic success but social difficulty. Until Jimmy was in middle school, they lived in Northfield, Illinois, a comfortable suburb north of Chicago. Jim, the author writes, “was super-duper good at marketing, and I hoped I’d also be a genius when I grew up, but without the crazy drinking upend-the-family part.” By 1964, Jim was acting more erratic than usual, disappearing for days at a time on drunken benders. When the company he co-founded was purchased by Technicolor that year, Jim retired as a millionaire and moved the family to Paradise Valley, Arizona—a major change from Illinois, socially and educationally. After Jim died as a result of alcoholism, Georgia and Jimmy moved to Lake Forest, Illinois, an old-money Chicago suburb. Jimmy navigated adolescence essentially unparented, relying on a close group of friends for emotional support. Georgia was involved in an abusive relationship with a man named Kirk, which ended shortly before Jimmy graduated high school when Kirk shoved Georgia down a set of stairs and left her unaided until she suffered convulsions requiring brain surgery (the incident left her with aphasia). Burns effectively engages readers’ senses to evoke childhood with an alcoholic parent as he recalls listening for “the clink of ice in a glass, the gurgle of an open bottle” or “the sickly-sweet smell of vodka that poured out of Dad’s mouth.” His high school experience, spent outside of most social circles but with a close group of friends who “generally helped [him] steer the rudderless boat,” will strike familiar chords with many. His adolescent encounters with drugs, and cars will especially resonate with those who grew up in that time.

An absorbing memoir that will leave readers hoping for a sequel.