{"product_id":"the-jack-bank-a-memoir-of-a-south-african-childhood-9781250002747","title":"The Jack Bank: A Memoir of a South African Childhood","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eAn extraordinary, literary memoir from a gay white South African, coming of age at the end of apartheid in the late 1970s. \u003c\/b\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eGlen Retief's childhood was at once recognizably ordinary--and brutally unusual. Raised in the middle of a game preserve where his father worked, Retief's warm nuclear family was a preserve of its own, against chaotic forces just outside its borders: a childhood friend whose uncle led a death squad, while his cultured grandfather quoted Shakespeare at barbecues and abused Glen's sister in an antique-filled, tobacco-scented living room. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eBut it was when Retief was sent to boarding school that he was truly exposed to human cruelty and frailty. When the prefects were caught torturing younger boys, they invented \"the jack bank,\" where underclassmen could save beatings, earn interest on their deposits, and draw on them later to atone for their supposed infractions. Retief writes movingly of the complicated emotions and politics in this punitive all-male world, and of how he navigated them, even as he began to realize that his sexuality was different than his peers'.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/b\u003e Glen Retief\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e St. Martin's Griffin\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 04\/24\/2012\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 288\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eBinding Type:\u003c\/b\u003e Paperback\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 0.85lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 9.00h x 5.90w x 0.90d\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN:\u003c\/b\u003e 9781250002747\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eGLEN RETIEF is an Assistant Professor of English and Creative Writing at Susquehanna University. He has been published in a variety of literary journals and quarterlies and awarded a James Michener Writing Fellowship and the AWP Intro Journals Award for Creative Nonfiction. He lives in Sunbury, Pennsylvania.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003eThis title is not returnable\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"St. Martin's Griffin","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":44115559645299,"sku":"9.78125E+12","price":24.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0555\/9255\/0515\/files\/img_40b3be89-8c84-4a12-9c41-ecc3cae88558.jpg?v=1764250643","url":"https:\/\/bookstorenmore.com\/products\/the-jack-bank-a-memoir-of-a-south-african-childhood-9781250002747","provider":"Bookstore N More","version":"1.0","type":"link"}