The Big Yank: Memoir of a Boy Growing Up Irish by J.P. Sexton revolves around the author’s life in Ireland in the late sixties and early seventies. The book exposes a boy’s life of growing up in Ireland in a dysfunctional Irish American family, where he has to work to provide for his parents and siblings and behave more like a man than a child during his childhood. He tells readers how he became a smuggler at the age of nine and tried to survive in a world of harshness and brutality. The book reaches out to readers and touches them with its honesty, humor, humility, and melancholy.

The memoir is fast paced and readers are exposed to the harsh living conditions in County Donegal, Ireland. The characters introduced and the situations faced by the author are both interesting and strange, making it an engaging read and a memorable memoir. The author’s collection of memories thoughts, incidents, and experiences of his life are tangible, and they keep readers entertained till the very end.

The author’s willpower, perseverance, and determination to survive, and his way of lacing his memoir with wit and humor, show his strong character and his determination to overcome difficulties. It’s a wonderful read that will leave readers with a lot of good, bad, and sad thoughts, as it takes them through Ireland in the sixties and seventies. The author’s journey will leave readers with a lot of memories, interesting characters, and colorful incidents; some poignant, some brutal, and some good moments.

The Big Yank: Memoir of a Boy Growing Up Irish by J.P. Sexton is a fascinating and inspiring memoir about the narrator who had to undergo a lot of twists and turns in his life. Starting in the introduction, we get a strong feel for the personality of the author and the sort of life he led, because he says one of the first things he did upon growing up was swear an oath, along with his brother, that if they ever had children they would never lay a finger on them. This sets the tone for the beginning of the volume when we learn that he and his brother were acting as smugglers, even at the tender ages of six and nine. It continues from here to cover his life and moving to the US, as well as the important people in his life who contributed to the man he became.

The stories the narrator chose are incredibly interesting, and he is able to delve into them with ease, bringing the reader along to experience everything first hand. The discussions of his grandfather were particularly engaging, and I think that even with how crazy much of this volume is, everyone would find at least something to relate to in it. The Big Yank: Memoir of a Boy Growing Up Irish by J.P. Sexton has a roughness to it that actually makes it more engaging, bucking convention and being unafraid to discuss difficult topics. It is a real winner in the world of well-written and personal anthologies.