Jedi Summer (2016)

   

A boy and his little brother wander through the loosely stitched summer of 1983. It was a magical one. Full of sun and surrealism, of lessons and loss, and of growing up and figuring it out. Nestled in the mountains of Pennsylvania is a small town unlike any other. Things are strange here, always have been. People die but hang around, pets too. Everyone knows your name, and sometimes, a thing as simple as a movie coming to the local theatre is all it takes to keep you going.

In this semi-autobiographical novella, author John Boden details life growing up as Johnny with his younger brother Roscoe during the summer of 1983, the year when George Lucas’ final instalment of Star Wars trilogy, Return of the Jedi, hit cinemas. Boden pens stories and ‘memories’ of that time, from hijinks and sibling disagreements between the brothers to strange and traumatic experiences tat can often leave a lasting impression. Boden paints very vivid pictures of his childhood, even if some of it is fictional, with himself as a 12 year old, long-haired rock fan who loved horror movies and writing his own stories on the typewriter. His younger brother Roscoe, aged 7, is described as a perky kid who’d always like to have fun and would mither Johnny who he treated like a parent as much as he did a brother, with their single mother out working three jobs to support the family. Within these tales, Boden shares stories of funny quirks, such as Roscoe’s penchant of talking to and feeding long-dead pets, as well as those of the neighbours in the town, some of whom were customers of his Avon-selling Gram. You can sense a lot of love and care in the stories as Johnny watches over Roscoe even if they do bicker and fight at times, like most siblings do.

Boden’s tales call back to a simpler time we often take for granted – our childhood. When we’re kids, we want to be grown up so we can do the things adults can do: smoke, drive cars, get into bars, etc. And when we’re adults, we yearn for our childhood years, a time of innocence and fun without the responsibility our parents are burdened with. Reading the stories penned in JEDI SUMMER awakens a warm, fuzzy feeling inside. It’s familiar, even if not reflecting one’s own experience, with that sense of nostalgia and feeling of more innocent, care-free times. A time when all of your worries were trivial but meant so much to you in that moment, like whether or not you’d ever get to see the screening of the biggest movie of the year.

What I took away from Boden’s writing is that sense of closeness that sometimes we lose as we grow older, our lives becoming so busy that we struggle to keep in touch with those around us, be it family or friends. Those moments of fun and joy that were so easy to attain as a kid can be harder to come by in adulthood with the pressures and responsibilities life puts on us. The bliss in rekindling those bygone times of just having a laugh, cycling as fast as you can to fly over a homemade ramp, with the likelihood of grazed knees a distinct possibility, during summers that seemed to last forever. In adulthood, time slips away so fast compared to the seemingly endless years of youth. Reading these tales brings a certain type of comfort in remembering what once was.

At 78 pages, JEDI SUMMER is a short but sweet slice of nostalgia that embraces with the simplicity of youth and living life in the moment. It’s written in a way that is so easy to digest and feel as though you’re part of Johnny and Roscoe’s family, or you can at least translate it to your own childhood. Much like when you watch the movies Stand By Me or The Goonies – children can relate to others and we, even as adults, can easily relate back to that time in our lives.