Fourteen: Growing Up Alone In A Crowd - Hardcover

Zanichkowsky, Stephen

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0465094007 ISBN 13: 9780465094004

Publisher: Basic Books, 2002

Synopsis

Born eighth in a family on its way to becoming almost twice that size, Stephen Zanichkowsky immediately learned that his life was to be no Cheaper by the Dozen romp. Instead, he and his siblings fended for themselves to avoid the wrath of their father and the heartbreaking emotional distance of their mother. Silence and terror ruled. A brother was taken away by the family one day, never to return. A sister was born with a mental deficiency that was never explained. As the years went by, each child left home as soon as he or she turned eighteen, creating unaccustomed "space" by skipping the others' weddings and graduations. With artless narrative style, Zanichkowsky embarks on a journey back to the family's Lithuanian Catholic roots in Brooklyn and follows its members on a tortured climb to suburban comfort that, for him, culminates in his escape from home and the draft. Along the way, he seeks answers to lifelong questions: Why was his father so angry and uncontrollable? Why did his parents continue to have children when they didn't have enough love, patience, or money to spread around? Forty years later after leaving home, Zanichkowsky reaches out to his siblings--most of them divorced or living alone--and discovers a group of people still learning how to form relationships with others. In the process, the boy that once retreated into his own world emerges, whole and self-possessed.From Fourteen:I was born into a system with an established order, with people cemented into positions long before I got there. As I got older, the biggest kids gradually filled me in with things I needed to know, as if I were a new hand at the factory and needed to learn which drawers certain tools were kept in. They showed me where the shoe polish was kept; how to fry an egg (because on Sundays we could have our egg fried or scrambled if we didn't want clucked); where to put my laundry in the basement. I learned about Mom's miscarriages, because all the rest of us resemble a line of ducks and outsiders sometimes asked about the three-year gap between Rita and Jane. The bigger kids told me about our religion, our relatives, our nationality. When bath night was and how often to change my underwear. (No one, however, had an answer as to why all the girls had the same middle name: Marie.)

About this title

About the Author

Stephen Zanichkowsky is a free-lance writer whose work has appeared in the New York Press, The Atlantic Monthly, and numerous other periodicals. This is his first book. He lives in Brooklyn, New York.

Reviews

Those who grow up with only one or two siblings may sometimes gaze longingly at large, unwieldy families, believing that with multitude comes mirth, and that these big clans lead a zesty, Cheaper by the Dozen kind of life. Zanichkowsky's wrenchingly honest account of being one of 14 children neatly destroys those rosy misconceptions. He artfully describes his place as eighth in a seemingly endless line of children born to a hotheaded father and an overwhelmed mother, and how, despite the nearness of so many allies, the children grew up feeling emotionally isolated and ready to drift apart. As evidence of this, only one photograph of the whole family exists, and it was stuck in a drawer soon after being taken, discovered only after the death of both parents. The children still yearn for the image of a whole family, as Zanichkowsky writes: But we treasure the picture anyway; because it grants us the illusion, or promise, or memory, of family. Only after decades of little contact with his siblings does he reach out to the rest of the brood, finding kinship with people who, like him, have difficulty relating to others or forming strong relationships. With the inclusion of this attempt to finally connect, Zanichkowsky elevates this memoir from a tale of childhood hell into a full, rich picture of what it's like to be one among many. His writing is so straightforward and candid that it takes on a kind of intimacy while describing alienation, like a friend whispering into another's ear about how hard it is to live alone.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

When the author was born, in 1952, he was his parents' eighth child. Eventually, there would be six more for a total of 14 born between 1943 and 1961. What was it like, being one person in a small army of kids? How did they get along, with a father who was both demanding and inattentive and an overwhelmed mother unable to devote one-on-one time to any of her children? Well, it wasn't easy. Written in a straightforward, unadorned style, this unusual memoir generates an emotional intensity almost imperceptibly, until we feel utterly caught up in the chaos of Zanichkowsky's very big family. Some of the author's brothers and sisters, in a mad attempt to do something all on their own, turned to shoplifting or stealing from friends and schoolmates; eventually, the kids moved out as fast as they could, sometimes marrying just so they could get a place of their own. And yet, despite their constant attempts to get away from one another, the children developed a bond. An unsentimental and unflinchingly honest memoir. David Pitt
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

This is a disturbing memoir of neglect and abuse by freelance writer Zanichkowsky, who was the eighth of 14 children born into a Lithuanian Catholic household in Brooklyn. His father, who had been disowned by his own father, was a self-made man. Too proud to accept his own mother's offer to help with the children, he left his young wife to cope with the chaotic household. Fourteen pregnancies and two miscarriages broke her health and her spirit, leaving her with no emotional resources, and the children had to fend for themselves. The inevitable childhood crises and arguments were settled with beatings. The Zanichkowsky children learned to shoplift, lie, and blame one another at an early age. Seemingly, the goal for each child was to escape the household as soon as possible. Forty years later, after the deaths of his father, mother, and one older brother, the author reaches out to his remaining brothers and sisters. The resulting memoir is a dark, deeply unsettling look at family life, and it cries out for a sequel. Recommended for libraries with large memoir sections. Pam Kingsbury, Florence, AL
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: Basic Books
• Publication date: 2002
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0465094007
• ISBN 13: 9780465094004
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 288