Unemployed - A Memoir: Reviews
Inner Circle Publishing (www.innercirclepublishing.com) is currently awaiting the cover for the book version of this blog (or "blook," which the popular, modern colloquialism).
These are the reviews that will appear in the book. Please support the book: the cure for unemployment is full employment = meaningful work + fulfillment. As I ask of you, I will try to repay to my fellows in humankind. With that attitude, there will be less wars and more resources for all.
Reginald L. Goodwin
Author of "Unemployed: A Memoir"
*****
Unemployed: A Memoir
Review by Ron Horne
A poet once told me that the most powerful poems often have one of the following two characteristics; the poem either tells a truth few, if any, have ever considered before or the poem tells a truth that everyone knows deep inside themselves but no one dares speak. Many major social reforms of the 50’s, 60’s, and 70’s were the culmination of truths long suffered silently. More and more people, writers, musicians, and preachers, among others, spoke that truth, each turning the wheel of change one degree at a time until the inertia of public dissent kept it rolling perpetually.
Contrary to his reference to Sisyphus, Reggie Goodwin’s Unemployed: A Memoir may be the balance of the stone turned one degree beyond the hill’s peak. Goodwin does more than put his finger on the pulse of many downsized, outsourced, unemployed people; he slips it through the skin and into the bloodstream. Besides dealing with the obvious pitfalls of a family man, proud and accomplished, educated, talented and creative being both unemployed and unemployable, he delves into both the expectations imposed by the myth of loyalty between company/industry and employee, as well as the sinister dispense of hope by the droplet that the myth, like unicorns, are real and just around the corner.
Goodwin gives equal portions of raw anger, frustration, and despair, logical and scientific consideration, and personal, spiritual, as well as universal, discovery, enrichment, redemption, and growth. Goodwin’s work is a trip on an earthquake crumpled road only to be repaved by strength found through adversity, with enough left over to build anon-ramp to the scenic route in the lives of others. In Unemployed: A Memoir, Reggie Goodwin erects a signpost to many displaced, disillusioned victims of corporate game theory: hope, joy, and creative living, all pure and plentiful, rest within.
Ron Horne & Dr. Sheila Siobhan, Co-Directors
Texas Youth Word Collective
u21slam@yahoo.com
www.txywc.org
(512)632-5033
*****
Review for Unemployed - A Memoir:
In the beginning, the blog seems to be too harsh and reads like a person who is very bitter. The reader can feel the honesty which draws you to continue through this seemly brutal journal.
Next, the blog moves into a vivid description of a person's dreams and vision for living in America. It's as if the painter's brush touches your eyes to view a masterpiece.
Thanks!
-CC Stinson
CCSquared Productions
P.O. Box 6236
Round Rock, TX 78683
512.740.6860
5127406860@mobile.mycingular.com
www.CCSquared.com
*****
This is a work of passionate poetic prose that connects with our desire to be independent, self-sustaining earners in a time of ever-looming lay-offs. So many of us fear the instability of downsizing corporations and are concerned to the point of anxiety as the options to pick ourselves back up dwindle with age. Here we see the consummate bread-winner, first lose his job and then question his self-worth before teaching himself to triumph over both.
visit www.taalamacey.com today!!
*****
Reggie.
Once I sat down to read your blog, I could not stop. Here are my thoughts/comments:
I just finished reading the entire blog and it was beautifully written. I've always known you to be an intelligent and extremely talented wordsmith and reading Unemployed - A Memoir seals that knowledge. There is a reason you are one of the most talented and respected poets in Austin, Texas. These "spiritual bread crumbs" are needed in today's world. Thank you for sharing.
"I've been on a two-year journey. I've documented the pains I've felt, the self-doubt, the despair, and the hopes. This is a process, long, complicated." You wrote this in the chapter entitled Surrender, and I feel this is the theme that truly underlies your memoir.
From "Great Games of Cat and Mouse" to "Epilogue", I was pulled into world interlaced with poetry, poignant and pivotal life moments, prolific premonitions and a journey on "Horizon Road" to F.I.N.E (Fired up, Inspired, Naturally talented, and Ecstatic)
I was especially moved by the account of your father's illness and visiting him in his last days and your undying devotion to him pulled at my heartstrings. “I saw the strong will that kept me from experimenting with the drugs that savaged my community become weak and... frightened." Your dedication to family and the continued support of your wife is wonderful. The Heathcliff Huxtable and Mr. Mom chapters showed a side of the black family that is often overlooked in society.
Your chronicle from the corporate world to living free and in the confines of talent is real and tragic yet beautiful. I found myself reading certain passages over again and the Biblical references were well placed. The chapter on Faith was eye opening and clearly displays your extraordinary grasp at physics.
I applaud you especially for the mention of the Sun Poet that took her life. It is so true that people suffer in isolation to the point where they feel going on here in this realm is useless. It's a sad testament to not really knowing what a person goes through inside. Depression and suicide is a topic that is not touched on as it should be. So many people suffer in silence and find it hard to escape the glass cage.
All in all, I thank you for including me on this project; wish you the best with Inner Circle (Chad and Prince are wonderful sources of guidance and information)
Be blessed and keep in touch.
Clarissa LeVonne Bolding
*as you did with my book, feel free to use any of these comments if you chose. u may cite me as Clarissa L. Bolding, poet/author of Life is a Song Worth Singing (Inner Circle Publishing: www.innercirclepublishing.com)
These are the reviews that will appear in the book. Please support the book: the cure for unemployment is full employment = meaningful work + fulfillment. As I ask of you, I will try to repay to my fellows in humankind. With that attitude, there will be less wars and more resources for all.
Reginald L. Goodwin
Author of "Unemployed: A Memoir"
*****
Unemployed: A Memoir
Review by Ron Horne
A poet once told me that the most powerful poems often have one of the following two characteristics; the poem either tells a truth few, if any, have ever considered before or the poem tells a truth that everyone knows deep inside themselves but no one dares speak. Many major social reforms of the 50’s, 60’s, and 70’s were the culmination of truths long suffered silently. More and more people, writers, musicians, and preachers, among others, spoke that truth, each turning the wheel of change one degree at a time until the inertia of public dissent kept it rolling perpetually.
Contrary to his reference to Sisyphus, Reggie Goodwin’s Unemployed: A Memoir may be the balance of the stone turned one degree beyond the hill’s peak. Goodwin does more than put his finger on the pulse of many downsized, outsourced, unemployed people; he slips it through the skin and into the bloodstream. Besides dealing with the obvious pitfalls of a family man, proud and accomplished, educated, talented and creative being both unemployed and unemployable, he delves into both the expectations imposed by the myth of loyalty between company/industry and employee, as well as the sinister dispense of hope by the droplet that the myth, like unicorns, are real and just around the corner.
Goodwin gives equal portions of raw anger, frustration, and despair, logical and scientific consideration, and personal, spiritual, as well as universal, discovery, enrichment, redemption, and growth. Goodwin’s work is a trip on an earthquake crumpled road only to be repaved by strength found through adversity, with enough left over to build anon-ramp to the scenic route in the lives of others. In Unemployed: A Memoir, Reggie Goodwin erects a signpost to many displaced, disillusioned victims of corporate game theory: hope, joy, and creative living, all pure and plentiful, rest within.
Ron Horne & Dr. Sheila Siobhan, Co-Directors
Texas Youth Word Collective
u21slam@yahoo.com
www.txywc.org
(512)632-5033
*****
Review for Unemployed - A Memoir:
In the beginning, the blog seems to be too harsh and reads like a person who is very bitter. The reader can feel the honesty which draws you to continue through this seemly brutal journal.
Next, the blog moves into a vivid description of a person's dreams and vision for living in America. It's as if the painter's brush touches your eyes to view a masterpiece.
Thanks!
-CC Stinson
CCSquared Productions
P.O. Box 6236
Round Rock, TX 78683
512.740.6860
5127406860@mobile.mycingular.com
www.CCSquared.com
*****
This is a work of passionate poetic prose that connects with our desire to be independent, self-sustaining earners in a time of ever-looming lay-offs. So many of us fear the instability of downsizing corporations and are concerned to the point of anxiety as the options to pick ourselves back up dwindle with age. Here we see the consummate bread-winner, first lose his job and then question his self-worth before teaching himself to triumph over both.
visit www.taalamacey.com today!!
*****
Reggie.
Once I sat down to read your blog, I could not stop. Here are my thoughts/comments:
I just finished reading the entire blog and it was beautifully written. I've always known you to be an intelligent and extremely talented wordsmith and reading Unemployed - A Memoir seals that knowledge. There is a reason you are one of the most talented and respected poets in Austin, Texas. These "spiritual bread crumbs" are needed in today's world. Thank you for sharing.
"I've been on a two-year journey. I've documented the pains I've felt, the self-doubt, the despair, and the hopes. This is a process, long, complicated." You wrote this in the chapter entitled Surrender, and I feel this is the theme that truly underlies your memoir.
From "Great Games of Cat and Mouse" to "Epilogue", I was pulled into world interlaced with poetry, poignant and pivotal life moments, prolific premonitions and a journey on "Horizon Road" to F.I.N.E (Fired up, Inspired, Naturally talented, and Ecstatic)
I was especially moved by the account of your father's illness and visiting him in his last days and your undying devotion to him pulled at my heartstrings. “I saw the strong will that kept me from experimenting with the drugs that savaged my community become weak and... frightened." Your dedication to family and the continued support of your wife is wonderful. The Heathcliff Huxtable and Mr. Mom chapters showed a side of the black family that is often overlooked in society.
Your chronicle from the corporate world to living free and in the confines of talent is real and tragic yet beautiful. I found myself reading certain passages over again and the Biblical references were well placed. The chapter on Faith was eye opening and clearly displays your extraordinary grasp at physics.
I applaud you especially for the mention of the Sun Poet that took her life. It is so true that people suffer in isolation to the point where they feel going on here in this realm is useless. It's a sad testament to not really knowing what a person goes through inside. Depression and suicide is a topic that is not touched on as it should be. So many people suffer in silence and find it hard to escape the glass cage.
All in all, I thank you for including me on this project; wish you the best with Inner Circle (Chad and Prince are wonderful sources of guidance and information)
Be blessed and keep in touch.
Clarissa LeVonne Bolding
*as you did with my book, feel free to use any of these comments if you chose. u may cite me as Clarissa L. Bolding, poet/author of Life is a Song Worth Singing (Inner Circle Publishing: www.innercirclepublishing.com)
posted by Unemployed | 10:06 AM
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