Non-Fiction Pick of the Week: Confessions of a Former Child

Confessions of a Former Child: a therapist's memoir by Daniel J. Tomasulo 2008

If you’re looking for a memoir that combines humour with darker familial issues, Confessions of a Former Child may just fit the bill. Psychologist Daniel Tomasulo was a child of the fifties and his book is filled with comical anecdotes of a little boy who spent much of his childhood dressed up like Hopalong Cassidy. However, these light-hearted memories mask more serious family matters. Tomasulo’s career in psychology has clearly led him to analyze his own conflicted feelings about his parents and other difficult experiences of his youth. His approach of juxtaposing childhood reflections against more recent situations he has encountered as a psychologist and parent is very effective as it reminds us that our struggles with our relationships and our identity are universal. We are all former children after all, and our lives, like this book, can be laugh-out-loud funny as well as deeply tragic.