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Reviewed by Jon Michael Miller for Readers' Favorite
To Then and Back Again by Terry Bryson McMillan is an informal account told as if to a pal, possibly around a campfire, the pal being the reader, whom he often refers to as “my friend.” It covers McMillan’s life from birth until shortly after he graduates from high school in small-town Solomon, Kansas. He was the fourth of five boys, his father away in the Air Force with his wild, crazy, and loving mother keeping the proverbial lid on at home. McMillan’s voice is not literary but cozy and friendly, though parts of this childhood account are anything but cozy as he describes in disturbing detail his molestation by a neighbor. He is explicit in this chapter because he wants to alert the reader to the horror of such crimes, and he is not shy about expressing his hatred toward this perpetrator. Though I had a difficult time getting through this section, I came to see the importance of this event in the author's psychological development, and certainly, he intends to inform.
Having grown up in a small town in rural Pennsylvania, I smiled many times throughout this memoir at the shenanigans of the Solomon residents and McMillan’s brothers and friends, not to mention his mom. Mostly, I could identify with his portrait of small-town life, the streets, the homes, the many characters, the small businesses, the schools, and even the pets. I appreciated the author’s fearlessness in revealing the truth with all its complexity, horror, and comedy. I especially enjoyed the narrator’s tone as he confided in us and shared what he would call his Midwestern perspective on life. In the epilogue, he promises volume two about the ups and downs of his young adulthood, where he says he got into even more trouble. Terry Bryson McMillan’s To Then and Back Again reads almost like a letter from a good chum. In all, it’s a worthwhile read, and I look forward to Volume 2.
