Review: ‘Idiot Out Wandering Around’

Penning an autobiography must be daunting. How best to organize and share a lifetime of experiences? Which incidents should be included and which should be set aside in deference of the larger arc of the book or the shorter attention span of the reader? What is the appropriate balance between honesty and discretion?

Strictly speaking, 'Idiot Out Wandering Around” (be sure to note the way the first letters of those four words combine) isn't an autobiography. The book is the life story of Terry Rescola who related his memories to his wife Jenifer Rescola. Jenifer is credited as the author of 'Idiot Out Wandering Around,” though the story is told from Terry's perspective throughout.

Both Rescolas must have grappled with the questions that adhere to biographical efforts of any sort. And in many ways, 'Idiot Out Wandering Around: Adventures of an Iowa Boy” is fairly successful. Terry's stories are engagingly told and he was clearly willing to discuss the joyful and the sorrowful with Jenifer, allowing her to craft a story of a life that - like all lives - is filled with high points and low points and a wide array of episodes, some exciting, some troubling, and some mundane.

The book suffers, however, from some structural issues. In addition to the occasional awkward construction or grammatical incongruity, the flow of the book is often uneven and details pop up in odd places. For example, early in the book while reflecting on his father's death from lung cancer, Terry shares a list of dishes his mother would cook, highlighting the Midwestern-ness of the cuisine ('Corn was always a given.”). It's a fine detail of his early life, but it's shoehorned into an unusual place in the narrative.

The book could benefit from some streamlining. While a case could be made that 426 pages isn't all that many to describe many decades of a life, 'Idiot Out Wandering Around” seems somewhat longer than it needs to be. Still and all, Jenifer and Terry Rescola do have some interesting stories to tell.