Eastern Sun, Winter Moon Book

It’s hard to imagine how Paulsen remembers all the details he shares in this amazing and brutally honest memoir. Then again, the individual stories are shocking enough to burn their way into anyone’s brain. The story focuses on his family’s time on a military base in the Philippines, in the late 1940s, when Gary was seven years old.

The crazy begins even before Gary and his mom leave Chicago to reunite with dad. He establishes Mom’s protective credentials by explaining how she catches a child molester with Gary in a back alley, and then she beats the guy to death.

Mom is much less protective of herself. Gary walks in on her with her lover in their Stateside home. And this establishes several patterns. Mom is a beautiful target. And Gary can never look away from anything. The men on their troop transport buy her favors by bringing candy bars and Coca-Cola to Gary. He loves the attention, and the military life. Soon he’s steering the ship from the bridge, joining the craps games, swearing like a sailor, and surprising his mom in lots of compromising positions. And when a plane crash lands in the Pacific, and sharks swarm amongst the survivors, Gary once again can’t look away. Not only that, nobody else seems to want him to look away. Well, except maybe me. Different time and place, I guess.

The trauma continues once they’re back on dry land. More affairs, more sexual abuse, more violence, more sickening emergencies. Once again it’s all incredibly powerful, and tough to take.

And it’s tough to process the main contradiction here. Paulsen is an unbelievably street-smart child. But he’s still a child, prone to crying and dangerously innocent questions and adventures that turn into panicky disasters. Sure, the memoir provides Paulsen with the opportunity to look back upon his life. But it’s more than that. Any child who can chastise his mom by telling her, “You were f___ing Ryland” is something more than a child.

Maybe Paulsen is embellishing, or maybe he’s giving his memory more credit for detail than it deserves. Then again, maybe this is exactly what was going on in Paulsen’s life. He’s a straight talker now, and there's a good chance he was a straight talker back in the day. Thank goodness I don’t have much in the way of experience to connect with days like that.