But I'll Be Back Again, by Cynthia Rylant - Autobiography

I have learned that as I get to know an author’s craft and style of writing by reading several of their books, I feel close to an author and their life. Maybe it is that “fame” thing that movie stars and celebrities go through, but I find myself yearning to know more about the person who writes the books that have touched my heart in a special way. I want to know more about the moments and events in their life that have caused them to write the way that they do and to express an emotion through a story event or character that so closely relates to me and connects to my little spirit. I almost feel a kinship between the authors and myself and want to talk to them more. However, the only way that I can relate with them more is to read more of their books and to possibly see them at readings or by video interviews. The chances of me sitting down with them over coffee and them allowing me to listen as they pour out their life story upon my burning ears is more likely not going to happen. Therefore, my remedy for such a feeling is the autobiography.

I found myself laughing aloud and feeling like I was getting to know Cynthia Rylant in her autography. I found much of myself in that book, with Rylant’s experiences through life. This now makes perfect sense to me why I enjoy her books so much and find a friend and co-thinker when reading them. Sure, my parents never divorced and my mother never left me to live with my grandparents in a small mountain town for four years, but I still found myself in her hopes and dreams and reflections of life.

In my later years (and keep in mind that I am only 28 years old) I have grown very fond of The Beatles and their music. Raised by parents who were themselves brought up during the 50’s and on the King of Rock-n-Roll (Elvis), I never really listened to The Beatles. Their anti-war protests greatly outraged my Veteran father, so their music was not listened to. Now, I find myself humming songs of their’s randomly and listening to them as a drive to class. I can imagine when they first came out that their popularity was amazing. I, personally, was in love with Davy Jones from the Monkey’s and I am not ashamed to admit that he was my first love and I was sure that we would somehow meet and marry. Little did I know (being a child of the 80s), that Davy Jones in my time was old enough to be my father. That was a harsh reality that I had to face in my first ten or eleven years of life! I’m still trying to recover :)

It is interesting to me that Rylant had so many friends who were male. Throughout the book we find that her playmates and best friends were typically males and that those were the ones that she had most of her most intimate (and I don’t always mean sexual) conversations with. It does make the reader pause to ponder if she was trying in her own childlike way to make up for the lack of a male figure in her life with so many male friends. Her confidence around the opposite sex was amazing, as well, with her joking and talking about things with boys that most middle and high school girls struggle with. I sensed no awkward silences and situations for Rylant and her buddies throughout her autobiography; just a lot of goofing around and having fun.

The way that Rylant delivers her story to the reader does not make the reader feel sorry for her, but brings about the realization that her life was not easy and that she survived, with love and a curious nature. She did not have both parents (and for about four years, she didn’t have either parent) to raise her and support her. She did not have books to read about far away places and adventures of animals, objects and humans. Yet she lacked in no imaginative way. I heard a person ask Richard Peck during his interview in Washington, D.C. if he thought that in order to be a good writer you had to be raised in a good and supportive home by both parents. Peck’s response was along the lines of that being raised and supported by both parents was important, but that not all good writers had to have this. Around this time in the watching of the speech I was wondering what planet the woman who asked that ridiculous question was from. It is obvious that writers are born with a talent and that not all writers have that parental support and nurturing at home. Rylant found it in her grandparents and her friends and eventually her mother. She is a good writer, not because she had, but because she didn’t have. Now she is able to look back and reflect on her life and brings believable characters alive that feel and experience what she felt and experienced. That is what makes a great, not just a good, writer!