The Mighty Franks: A Memoir

A cozy family Jill Meyer In a memoir, the author's most personal thoughts and recollections are on offer and the result can be very difficult to read. This seems true with Michael Frank's "The Mighty Franks: A Memoir". But what is difficult to read must have been excruciating t. Beautifully crafted and compelling Michael Frank has achieved something extraordinary in this poignant and gripping memoir, a personal tale that resonates beyond the limits of one intertwined family. He has touched upon the questions that torment us all, the questions that tug at our ess. Non-objective Review I bought this book because, through many arcane marriages, I am a step cousin of a branch of the Goldsteins (aka Bernhards, they, too, changed their names). There was always a lot of talk about their cousin, Harriet. It's not often one has the chance to

Strangest of all is the way Auntie Hankie, with her extravagant personality, comes to bend the wider family to her will. In this strangely intertwined world, even the author's grandmothers-who dislike each other-share a nearby apartment. The family is uncommonly close: Michael's childless Auntie Hankie and Uncle Irving, glamorous Hollywood screenwriters, are doubly related- Hankie is his father's sister, and Irving is his mother's brother. She trains his mind and his eye-until that eye begins to see on its own. "It's stronger than I am. When this "son" Hankie longs for grows up and begins to turn away from her, her moods darken, and a series of shattering scenes compel Michael to reconstruct both himself and his family narrative as he tries to reconcile the woman he once adored with the troubled fig