an exquisite chronicle of family and trauma and hope and longing, and announces Brittany Ackerman as an exciting new voice in letters.” -Alan Heathcock, author of VOLT and 40 “Full of hard-won wisdom, beautifully written and deeply moving. The project has been one giant experiment-to see if they can all make it out alive. The preparation has been “in the field” in that it is built upon the gathering of lived experience the evidence is photo albums, family interviews, and anecdotes from friends. The collection has been a science project in its study of memory, in the calculation and plotting of the moments that make up a childhood. Inspired by a brother’s high school science project-a perpetual motion machine that could save the world- The Perpetual Motion Machine is a memoir in essays that attempts to save a sibling by depicting the visceral pain that accompanies longing for some past impossibility.
Fans of coming-of-age novels will have seen better.A memoir exploring a young woman’s troubled childhood, her bond with her older brother, and the toll of drugs and alcohol on their lives. Though the skimpy plot reads as true to life and the elements of nostalgia are spot-on, the narrative fails to get off the ground.
Unfortunately, only the two main Brittanys receive more than surface-level treatment, and sections told from a later-in-life perspective add little to the story. When Brittany’s birthday comes around and none of the other Brittanys participate in the celebration, the narrator begins to wonder if losing one’s childhood friends is an inevitable part of growing up. Now without her best friend, the narrator dips into the dating pool, seeing one boy who neglects to say he has a girlfriend and another too timid to kiss her. The two closest Brittanys, Brittany Jensen and the narrator, are tumbling through adolescence-dyeing their hair for Halloween, wearing Victoria’s Secret push-up bras, carrying trendy Coach purses-but as the narrator explores her developing sexuality, Brittany Jensen accuses her of being boy crazy. Ackerman ( The Perpetual Motion Machine) follows the travails of a group of five high school freshman girls named Brittany in this heartfelt if flat story.
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