Title: Personal Achievements
Author: Francisco Javier Morales E.
Publisher: Palibrio
ISBN: 978-1-4633-9462-2
Pages: 86
Genre: Memoir
Reviewed by: Susan Brown
Hollywood Book Reviews
Where to begin? That is the first question memoir writers must ask themselves. This author took a bold, giant leap and jumped right into his life story, beginning with the details of a tumultuous relationship that ended with his lover saying, “Get out of here, Javier, I’m through with you. I don’t want to continue looking at your sad dog face, do you understand me.” From there, his life went up… and down, the customary journey which happens to so many of us.
Shortly after his breakup, his professional affairs improved with a new full-time government job that afforded better pay and working conditions. This change is the beginning of a series of anecdotes about his professional adventures and misadventures. The memoir chronicles his various jobs and the bosses and assistants who occupy his days. It’s a mixed bag of friends and foes, all who add a vibrancy to his humdrum workplaces. The author is determined to be successful and works hard to improve his position at each job in spite of many obstacles, most of which have to do with the ups and downs of his professional relationships.
There is a lot to like about this author and it shows in his narrative. He captures the essence of his life with a mix of self-deprecation and self-awareness which makes his story resonate with truthfulness. The hypothetical conversations he has with himself about his parent’s perception of him and his ability to be successful are reflective of conversations any child might have. That self-reflection motivates him to “study something that not only would serve me, but that would also brace me up professionally.” So, he commits to “make a great effort not only to look forward but to always go forward in everything.” And he does, with a little bit of the one step forward and two steps back dance that is so often prevalent in many of our lives.
Even though it does not appear that English is the author’s native language, the prose is engaging and endearing. We feel the unpleasantness of Victoria, the toxic person that kicks off his memoir, with his use of phrasing like, “Victoria turned out to be a street prizefighter who only knows how to hit low and to place dry punches where it hurts the most.”
His fear is palpable when describing an earthquake he experienced in his office building. “I could see from the window how I was coming close to the sidewalk … the fear made me first imagine how my body would fly out of the building and fall on the pavement … a mountain of debris would fall on top of me.”
He captures the essence of coworkers — “Raymundo, the one who had taken off his mask of false courtesy to show just who he was;” about his assistant Patty, “I saw how her beautiful legs transported the rest of her shocking body;” and of his friend Omar, “I thought that all that he told me was no more than the visible flesh and bones face that powerful Mr. Money from High school had in real life.”
From beginning to end, Mr. Morales never loses his joy for living life. It may be dim at times, but his personal philosophy that, “Life is like a fortune wheel that today drags you and sadly rolls you somewhere, and then brings you joyful back over here,” is a message that I never get tired of hearing.