Book review: ‘Yearnings: A Memoir in Prose and Poetry’

Not a banned book for a change!

Phew! Ever close a book, and just sit, star­ing in front of you, think­ing deeply about all that you’ve just read? This was my expe­ri­ence with Yearnings: A Memoir in Prose and Poetry, by Winchester res­i­dent and WinCity Voices con­trib­u­tor Bill McCann.

In an engag­ing for­mat that switch­es from per­son­al let­ters, school com­mu­ni­ca­tions, prose, poet­ry, invoic­es, and more, the author relates his child­hood mem­o­ries of board­ing at The Cove Schools res­i­den­tial school, begin­ning in 1962.

As a teacher myself, I was imme­di­ate­ly fas­ci­nat­ed to learn that such an edu­ca­tion­al insti­tu­tion even exist­ed in that decade of great change, unrest, and upheaval. Reading of the goals of the school and its per­son­nel great­ly moved me; they seem, if not unique, then cer­tain­ly rare for that era.

As a par­ent, dis­cov­er­ing that young Billy not only attend­ed but thrived there was heart­warm­ing. It had to be a wrench, on both sides, to be far from home, espe­cial­ly at bed­time, in sick­ness, or at ran­dom moments. The author has a lucid way of detail­ing his feel­ings. He is believ­able, and I want­ed to keep read­ing to dis­cov­er how he turned out! (Yes, any­one who knows Bill knows he turned out very well indeed, but this read­er was engrossed with that lit­tle boy whose behav­ior was such a chal­lenge, and he held my atten­tion to the end.)

The librar­i­an in me had to research more; I am grate­ful to the author for bring­ing The Cove School to my atten­tion. Look it up; it’s a fas­ci­nat­ing place, with sol­id goals and methodology.

The stu­dent in me, who resided in the Chicagoland area from 1976 to 1980 and again from 1984 to 1986, is delight­ed that such an amaz­ing school exists there for stu­dents who can benefit.

Please do con­sid­er this for your next read! I am so glad I read it, and I believe you will be, too.

Yearnings: A Memoir in Prose and Poetry can be pur­chased at many local book­stores or from Bookshop.org, an online book­store that sup­ports local, inde­pen­dent booksellers.