Homework: A Memoir
Both a captivating portrait of the artist as a young man and an insightful snapshot of postwar Britain ... Episodes are so brilliantly relayed ... Dyer’s most absorbing recollections are those concerning his foray into books. But his most satisfying depictions are of his humble, private, and resolutely unbookish parents ... A vibrant trip down memory lane. There might be little in the way of tension or drama in the form of growing pains or teenage angst, but there is no shortage of candid and beguiling recollections of scrapes, shenanigans, success, and self-discoveries.
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It’s coherent, or maybe stable is a better word, free of the comical overstatement and fictional swerving that characterize Dyer’s other books. It’s formally recognizable in pretty much every way. It is also extremely good ... Beautiful.
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Although hearing about someone else’s personal memorabilia is as dull as it ever was — at its low points, reading this book can feel like being trapped in a conversation with an uncle who is enjoying his reminiscences rather more than you are — Dyer is wonderful on the strangeness of remembering itself ... Records the kinds of memories we all have...but also the vividly remembered oddities ... Dyer’s memoir deftly captures this transformation, one both unlikely and inevitable.
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