Leave Out the Tragic Parts: A Grandfather's Search for a Boy Lost to Addiction

by Dave Kindred

Overview

Dave Kindred's extraordinary investigation of the death of his grandson yields a powerful memoir of addiction, grief, and the stories we choose to tell our families and ourselves

Jared Kindred left his home and family at the age of eighteen, choosing to wander across America on freight train cars and live on the street. Addicted to alcohol most of his short life, and withholding the truth from many who loved him, he never found a way to survive.

Through this ordeal, Dave Kindred's love for his grandson has never wavered.

Leave Out the Tragic Parts is not merely a reflection on love and addiction and loss. It is a hard-won work of reportage, meticulously reconstructing the life Jared chose for himself—a life that rejected the comforts of civilization in favor of a chance to roam free.

Kindred asks painful but important questions about the lies we tell to get along, and what binds families together or allows them to fracture. Jared's story ended in tragedy, but the act of telling it is an act of healing and redemption. This is an important book on how to love your family, from a great writer who has lived its lessons.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781549163159
Publisher:	Public Affairs
Publication date:	02/02/2021
Product dimensions:	5.80(w) x 5.60(h) x 0.50(d)

About the Author

Dave Kindred has been a columnist for the Louisville Courier-Journal, the Washington Post, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, The National Sports Daily, Sporting News, and Golf Digest. Kindred is the author of several books including Heroes, Fools and Other Dreamers: A Sportswriter's Gallery of Extraordinary People, Around the World in 18 Holes, Morning Miracle: Inside the Washington Post The Fight to Keep a Great Newspaper Alive, and Sound and Fury: Two Powerful Lives, One Fateful Friendship.

Editorial Reviews

"The title of Dave Kindred's astonishing book is precisely what he did not do. A world-class reporter used every ounce of his journalistic skills to investigate a story-the life and death of a beloved grandchild-that most of us would find daunting. But Kindred tells the story truly and with love."—David Maraniss, author of A Good American Family: The Red Scare and My Father

"Dave Kindred's Leave Out the Tragic Parts is a searing, terrifying, and brilliantly written book that, when I began reading one night, I couldn't put down. As a tireless researcher devoted to finding and writing the unflinching truth about his beloved grandson, Kindred brings us into a fascinating, foreign world. In his remarkable journey, he explores and communicates the bafflement, desperation, and pain experienced by anyone who loves a person with addiction, and he reminds us that reading others' stories can lead to understanding, compassion, and healing. Leave Out the Tragic Parts is a godsend for every grandparent, parent, friend, spouse, and child who loves a person with addiction. It is testament to the power of love. I believe that the greatest art can come from the greatest pain and love, and this book is pure art."—David Sheff, New York Times-bestselling author of Beautiful Boy

"Keening was the sound that confronted me on the other end of the line when Dave Kindred called to say his grandson Jared had been found dead of an overdose in a flop house in Philadelphia. The resounding howl of grief, anger, and bewilderment, would not abate until Kindred turned his consummate talents and unflinching gaze on Jared's all-too-brief life and unseemly death. Maybe, just maybe, if he could tell how the beautiful blond boy in a white tuxedo became a 'traveling kid' named Goblin-a wraithlike mess of tats and vodka-who hopped trains for a living, Jared's life would have some meaning and his grandpa would find some peace. Leave Out the Tragic Parts is a rageful lullaby of love and regret and a wonder to behold."—Jane Leavy, New York Times-bestselling author of The Big Fella

“Leave Out the Tragic Parts is an emotional and psychological voyage into the psyche of a grief-stricken grandfather…. it must have required a great amount of courage and intestinal fortitude on the part of the writer...a home run.”—The New York Journal of Books

“Leave Out the Tragic Parts serves as both an insightful look into the transient world of freewheeling American drifters while also being a vulnerable and open exploration of what it means to be a family watching a loved one struggling with addiction. Kindred’s frequent thoughts of ‘what if?’ will resonate with many.”—Library Journal

“Powerful and deeply affecting.”—Booklist, starred review

“A love letter. . . Kindred writes with an impressive combination of journalistic detachment and grandfatherly love . . .He approaches a difficult story with love and curiosity rather than sentimentality.”—Kirkus Reviews

From the Publisher

02/05/2021

Kindred uses his years of experience as a sports journalist to try to understand what led to the untimely death of his free-spirited grandson, Jared. Known on the streets as "Goblin," Jared got into train hopping around the country shortly after high school and took a budding alcohol addiction with him on the road. Kindred interviews those who knew Jared, from his parents and familiars, to the characters he met on trains, in New Orleans, Coney Island, and beyond. Readers will learn about the little-known world of train hopping as well as the all-too-familiar tale of the spiraling nature of alcohol addiction. Kindred, as a grandfather, cannot help but wonder what his family have done differently. VERDICT This book serves as both an insightful look into the transient world of freewheeling American drifters while also being a vulnerable and open exploration of what it means to be a family watching a loved one struggling with addiction. Kindred's frequent thoughts of "what if?" will resonate with many.—Kelly Karst, California Inst. of Integral Studies

Library Journal

2020-12-25
A veteran sportswriter explores his grandson’s addiction and how he became “one of those wanderers whose lives are a mystery and a bafflement, an undoable jigsaw puzzle.”

This is a love letter of sorts, from a grandfather whose work made him a Hall of Fame sportswriter to a grandson who rode trains to a form of freedom until he couldn’t ride anymore. Kindred had a soft spot for Jared since his birth, and he watched him grow up as a sensitive kid from a broken home. As he got older, Jared became “Goblin,” free-spirited train-hopper who made a life riding the rails, “flying sign” (holding up a cardboard sign asking for money), and abusing alcohol and drugs. Kindred writes with an impressive combination of journalistic detachment and grandfatherly love. He shows genuine curiosity about the ways of the hobo code and growing alarm at the hell through which Jared put his body as his trips to the hospital became more frequent. It’s clear the author wanted to help, but he also wanted to understand, partly because that’s what his training taught him but mostly because of his genuine love for Jared. Like Kindred, readers may want to reach through the page and tell Jared that he’s heading to an early grave, and they will also be fascinated by Jared’s viewpoints on various locales—e.g., “New Orleans is heaven for travelin’ kids. It’s practically illegal to be sober on the city streets, and diners at fancy restaurants hand out their white-box leftovers.” Kindred also gets introspective as he traces multiple generations of men in the family, from the author’s father, a stoic veteran who died young; to Jared’s dad, Jeff, who faced his own pressures as a parent; to Jared, at home only when he’s crisscrossing the land in boxcars. The book mostly leaves out the tragic parts, and the author doesn’t sugarcoat the protagonist's tale.

Kindred approaches a difficult story with love and curiosity rather than sentimentality.

Kirkus Reviews