While reading Hole in my Life, I noticed a lot. Some things I made a note of was how the story shaped Jack and how Jack shaped the story, the pattern of events, good and bad; how they moved throughout the book and how Jack reacted to them. The type of notes are just important moments in the book, questions I have and predictions I have. I found it most effective to keep a google doc where for each chapter or two, I write down three or four bullet points. This helps me because when I am annotating, I can never focus on the book and I think I miss out on the experience of reading the book because I am so caught up on making sure I annotate every day. I don’t look for things like good language, I look for things that connects to the plot, as if I was in the story. I think I notice these notes because I like to focus on the book, and these are the most important things in the chapter and that I have to write down.
When I was reading Hole in my Life, I had the feeling Jack was trying to show us another side of the world, one we don’t usually hear and understand to full detail. Even when things were going up and Jack seemed happy, you as the reader have to step back and see the big picture. As the reader, it is pretty easy to anticipate where this story is going. You can see that as the story goes on, Jack gets in a lot of danger. As Gantos, the author is writing this book, I think this is what he wants you to see. While Jack may seem happy and like his life is going well, stepping back and looking at the illusion is what we really need to do. Here are two reasons for my theory.
In Chapter 5, Jack talks about the smuggling job that is presented to him and he really give us “good” reasons on why to participate in this deal. He focuses on his end goal, college and is desperate for anything to help him get there. The illusion brought forward to us is the illusion that he is actually doing something that connects to his ethics. This is a perfect example of what I said about stepping back. He says, this smuggling deal will help me reach my end goal. When you step back, you see, it may help you because you will get the money but, you’re still getting stuck in a multi-million dollar smuggling ring stretching from Mongolia to New York.
Another example is when in chapter 9 when Jack talks about how he is really bummed to go to jail and he has heard these bad things about prison like being raped but when he gets to prison and experiences the environment and settles in, prison changes him for the good. He can develop his job he’s always wanted, which was being a doctor. Jack can also read books he’s never read before and he gets prepared for his life out of college. This illusion is almost the opposite of the example before. In chapter 9, Jack talks about how negative prison is and how scary it is but really, when you look back to where he was before, prison has really changed him for the better because he gets prepared for his future.
Gantos shows us that people put illusions on everything they experience and they mold each experience so every experience is exciting and full of fun. As the reader, we can step back, reread each page if we need to and we can get the full picture. I see this problem today. People put masks on things to either comfort the blow of a negative event or they put a mask on an event to have people feel sorry for them. As humans, I believe that we are never satisfied. We must always have our way and I think is Gantos read his book over and over, he would get this picture and he would understand the masks he put on things. People talk about events with masks on them but it’s how they really feel, in the moment, deep down, too hard to explain; this feeling is the one that matters and it can’t be expressed in words or even in speech. Everywhere, just like in Hole in my Life people are struggling to not put masks on events and to step back and reflect on their recent choices.
I would rate this book a 9 out of 10. I really enjoyed this book and how it was set in the first person and I really enjoyed the voice of Jack Gantos. I felt at some places, Gantos could have explained a little more about some things but I understand that then it would be interferring with his writing style.