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The Book of Jon, by Eleni Sikelianos

City Lights Books, 2004 $11.95

The Book of Jon is vast in its smallness. Writing a memoir about the death of one’s father—or the death of any loved one for that matter—that doesn’t turn saccharine or personal to the point of alienating the reader is a feat that few achieve. Sikelianos pulls it off by using a collage of stories, poems, photos, dreams, journal entries and remembrances from other family members. Although the book is a mere 116 pages, this pastiche creates an effect similar to attending a rollicking wake: There is sadness, of course, but there is also laughter and half-remembered stories that float away as they are being told; photos that are passed around and reminisced over; there are family huddles about formal decisions; and there is the bittersweet awareness that old debts will never be paid, coupled with the realization that repayment was unlikely to begin with. In this case, the debts involve Sikelianos’ father’s lifelong addiction to drugs and alcohol. An addiction that culminated in three years of homelessness on the streets of Albuquerque and, finally, an overdose in Room 152 of the De Anza Motor Lodge. The room cost $33.10 a night. Among his possessions were “2 packs of cigarettes (both opened, one pack Camels, one pack Marlboros).”