Bryan's Brain by Bryan Healey

My reaction to this little tome totally confuses me. In the introduction, Bryan Healey says:

So, just who is this "Bryan" person, and why should you care what is happening inside his silly little head?

I don't know why I should care at all but I really enjoyed this book. Here's what the back of the book says:

Come with me and explore my crazy brain, discovering my wild attempts at going back in time, cloning dinosaurs, starting private militaries, purchasing mountains, flying to Mars, making movies, selling videogames, and playing professional baseball. You'll laugh, you'll cry, but mostly you won't care about any of it. But read it anyway because you'll hurt my feelings if you don't!

The book is made up of chapters that tell the story of growing up "Bryan". They don't really run together to form a plot but rather they form in the readers mind this character "Bryan". The stories are funny because they are so relateable. I remember my brother spending an entire summer being Superman. So the chapter of Bryan's exploits as a four year old Superman brought back my own memories and entertained me. What confuses me some, though, is that the disclaimer in the front of the book states that the book is a work of fiction - and all incidents are a product of the author's imagination. I don't know what this means. If the book really is fiction - it is not as cute and fun. So I chose to believe that the whole thing really constitutes a collection of Mr. Healey's memories of growing up. There is nothing Earth shattering or spectacular about the incidents related here but that is to the author's credit. Instead it is the daily happenings and growth of the boy that warms the heart and causes the smiles.

The only other things I have to say are really nit picky. There is a quote on the front of the book attributed to Barak Obama (and I'm sure he said it - just not about this book) which bothered me and some of the narrative could be construed in such a way as to be rather politically incorrect. Neither of these things took away from my enjoyment of the book but are worth mentioning as a caution to future readers.

A Taste from page 89:

For those of you that don't understand why this was a big deal, let me explain: Oregon Trail is pure awesome. Not was, mind you, but is. I would still happily play that game for hours, even in spite of gainful employment and the possession of a legally obtained car. Of course, by the standard of today, Tetris has much better graphics, but the gameplay was just flawless. And it was fun, too, especially when you died of dysentery!

 /5   

Character Development         5

Editing                                      5

Sex                                            0

Violence                                  0

Romance                                 0

Readability/Flow                     5