A List of Things That Didn't Kill Me: A Memoir - Softcover

Schmidt, Jason

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1250073723 ISBN 13: 9781250073723

Publisher: Square Fish, 2016

Synopsis

Jason Schmidt wasn't surprised when he came home one day during his junior year of high school and found his father, Mark, crawling around in a giant pool of blood. Things like that had been happening a lot since Mark had been diagnosed with HIV, three years earlier.

Jason's life with Mark was full of secrets―about drugs, crime, and sex. If the straights―people with normal lives―ever found out any of those secrets, the police would come. Jason's home would be torn apart. So the rule, since Jason had been in preschool, was never to tell the straights anything. A List of Things That Didn't Kill Me is a funny, disturbing memoir full of brutal insights and unexpected wit that explores the question: How do you find your moral center in a world that doesn't seem to have one?

A List of Things That Didn't Kill Me by Jason Schmidt is a gripping, heartbreaking young adult memoir.

About this title

About the Author:

Jason Schmidt was born in Oregon in 1972. He has a law degree, and he lives with his family in Seattle, Washington.

From School Library Journal:

Gr 10 Up—In this disturbing, heartbreaking, and inspiring memoir, Schmidt provides an account of an unstable childhood and adolescence. The prologue begins with Schmidt at age 16, coming home to discover his father crawling around the floor, covered in blood. The author then pulls back, describing his early years. After Schmidt's parents separated, his father, Mark, took custody of him. The two moved from one decrepit home to the next in Seattle, as Mark abused and sold drugs, barely earning a living. Schmidt's voice will resonate with teens as he writes candidly about his father's negligence and abuse, adeptly capturing what it was like to grow up impoverished, the hostility he encountered at school, the injuries and illnesses he endured, his difficulty finding and keeping friends, and the challenges of adjusting to his gay father's unstable romantic and sexual life. As Schmidt grew older, he believed more and more that he and Mark could never become "straights," or normal people. When the author reached adolescence, during the early 1980s, Mark and many of his friends were diagnosed with AIDS. It was a period when many gay men were dying, when those with HIV faced stigma, and when the effectiveness of medical treatment was minimal. Once realizing his father's fate, Schmidt feared what the future had in store but was inspired to take control of his life. VERDICT This unflinchingly honest work is a strong choice for readers who appreciate unfiltered stories, can stomach gruesome details, or aspire to work in social services.—Jess Gafkowitz, New York Public Library

About this edition

• Publisher: Square Fish
• Publication date: 2016
• ISBN 10: 1250073723
• ISBN 13: 9781250073723
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 432