(image: John Booth/Kirk Demarais)
To this day, I’m convinced that inside a panel in the back of my parents old station wagon (circa 1983) there are still Star Wars figures lodged, trapped forever. Or perhaps in the grubby hands of some other kid who tried to hide his toys back there. It’s a feeling that will never go away. This is the feeling that author John Booth conveys in the introduction of his book Collect All 21! Memoirs of a Star Wars Geek - The First 30 Years. To be drawn into an authors brain and immediately associate and sympathize with his point of view - in the introduction - has got to be a sign that the rest of the book is going to be like a nostalgic walk through your childhood and growing up geek. Guess what? It was.
Full disclosure before I continue, I recently reviewed another memoir, Deus Ex Comica which is written by author Adam Besenyodi. John Booth, who is also a fellow GeekDad writer, was the editor on that book. This book, Collect All 21! was written by GeekDad John Booth and edited by Adam Besenyodi. Did you get all that?
So ready to travel down the Death Star that is my memory, I sat down with a cup of organic hot chocolate the other night during our one day of winter at my Florida residence. The residence from which I recently sold my collection of Star Wars figures. Yes, with Celebration V coming up next year and now getting a book about Star Wars handed to me, I felt the pang of regret that is well deserved. John’s book didn’t make that feeling go away, in fact in his collection of memories related to Star Wars, it only amplified it.
While John collects a good plethora of childhood experiences surrounding Star Wars there is a bit of noticeable memory loss and fogginess that he has made no qualms about working into his memoir. Often a recollection is stated to be a possibility, especially when it comes to exact times (birthday or Christmas for example.) While in a historical memoir this might be interpreted as a grievous error, in a memoir about the impact and excitement of Star Wars on a child, it makes perfect sense. Unless we all have completely unaltered hippocampuses (not sure of the plural of that - Ed. Note: that would be “hippocampi”) then all of our childhood memories are fuzzy recognitions of significant events.
John drives us from his first official purchase of the Darth Vader figure (over the handsome, but girlish Luke) to his official collecting later in life. From the original 21 figures, to the hundreds of licensed products over the years. Breaking up his cleverly titled memories are two paragraph factoids about his life that almost proves he’s not making too much up. These “proofs of purchase” remind the reader that John’s Star Wars obsession is much more than that. Growing up, it was a way of life.
While the critic might say that John’s memories of growing up in the shadow of Chewbacca are not particularly special, it’s our association and familiarity with those memories that force us to emotionally react to the feelings and excitement that the young John feels. The critic might also say that John’s writing is a bit on the choppy and disconnected side, but that critic must not realize that he’s reading a memoir - about Star Wars. Not written by a movie insider or an actor about their time on the films, but from the perspective of a grown child, sharing with us the greatest part of his youth and what has shaped him as an adult.
A couple things about the book bear mentioning as well. The artist who did the cover art - Kirk Demarais - is no stranger to the sci-fi world, after getting a shout out from J.J. Abrams back in April’s “Mystery Issue” of Wired. Also, check out John’s site for some blurbs from Clone Wars writer George Krstic.
Wired: A great coffee table book for the Star Wars fan who has everything. There is no way for a true Star Wars fan to pretend they don’t have the same giddy recollection of their childhood with Star Wars - whether they were born in the 70’s or in the 90’s.
Tired: You almost have to be a Star Wars fan to enjoy even a paragraph of this book. While John does a good job with picking things out of his past that energized and fueled his love for Star Wars, if you don’t love it as much as him you’d think he was a crazy person. Niche material for sure.
John Booth is an independent author, if you are a huge Star Wars honk, head over to Amazon and buy the book!
