So Vera tells the story, and it begins with Charlie’s funeral, and as the year goes by, it is linear but she is thinking on past events, past moments, which is something we all do every day. Stories and lives are shaped and told in various ways. I am seven, eleven, thirteen, very linear. The story isn’t told in a linear fashion, but life isn’t linear. What days it say about Ken that for the entire book, he calls her Cindy Sindy? That I am obsessing about a side character like this shows the strength of the characterization. Turns out, Cindy Sindy changed her name when she left her family. But he really doesn’t realize what he told Vera - or what she heard - because later he thinks, “ she’s too young to understand the situation Cindy Sindy was in when she was born and I was drunk.” What Ken eventually tells the reader is what the reader probably already figured out: “ I was drinking our rent.” Ken really intrigues me, for his own back-story, for staying, for the mixed messages he gives Vera about her absent mother, for his always doing the Cindy/Sindy thing with her name.

These are the times in the book where I had to remind myself that Ken Dietz was young when he became a parent (just 18), had pretty bad parents himself, was drinking for the start of Vera’s life, but that he stopped drinking, went to college, provided for his family, and, most important, stayed. I was still drinking then.” You can just imagine what Charlie’s family is like, if he thinks Vera comes from a good family. She wanted her freedom back after dropping out of school, getting kicked out of her house, and having - uh - a baby so young. When Vera turned thirteen, her father told her, “ When you were just a little baby, your mother took a job over at Joe’s. Vera’s mother Cindy Sindy was 17 when Vera was born, Ken just a year older. It’s a family history where her mother left when Vera was twelve, going to Las Vegas with a new husband and sending Vera one birthday card a year. It’s a Vera who has a father who thinks she should be working full time while going to school. Because the Vera that starts with the funeral is a Vera who is tough, lonely, and drinking. She was a good person from a good family.”Ĭharlie’s perspective, especially this, shows us a Vera we didn’t know before. Loving Vera Dietz was the scariest thing that ever happened to me. I war born to a man like my father and a woman like my mother, and I had to save Vera from myself.

As far as I was concerned, I didn’t have a choice. As he explains, “ I regret everything that happened with Vera. Of course, every now and then the dead kid - Charlie - speaks up. A few chapters later, Ken Dietz (Vera’s dad) has a “brief word” to share. The next chapter is three and half months later. Part One, The Funeral: Vera at Charlie’s funeral. The Good: The structure of Please Ignore Vera Dietz is fabulous, just the kind of “confusing but not really” storytelling I enjoy.

Please excuse vera dietz