Gamelife

A Memoir

By: Michael W. Clune

Narrated by: Peter Berkrot

You have been awakened.

Floppy disk inserted, computer turned on, a whirring, and then this sentence, followed by a blinking cursor. So begins Suspended, the first computer game to obsess seven-year-old Michael, to worm into his head and change his sense of reality. Thirty years later he will write: "Computer games have taught me the things you can't learn from people."

Gamelife is the memoir of a childhood transformed by technology. Afternoons spent gazing at pixelated maps and mazes train Michael's eyes for the uncanny side of 1980s suburban Illinois. A game about pirates yields clues to the drama of cafeteria politics and locker-room hazing. And in the year of his parents' divorce, a spaceflight simulator opens a hole in reality. In telling the story of his youth through seven computer games, Michael W. Clune captures the part of childhood we live alone.

©2015 Michael Clune (P)2015 Macmillan Audio

Suppressed Catholic school boys act out

Being in love with video games myself I really enjoyed this book. At times it goes off the deep end a bit, but I chalk it up to poetic license which he does really well throughout the story.
I'm not really religious to begin with, but if this book has taught me anything it's to never put your kids in Catholic school lol.

Scattered story that doesn't go anywhere

The story doesn't go anywhere and doesn't even close out one of the main plot points.
The timeline jumps around per chapter and while there are game references they don't add to the story other than trying to suggest gaming is seen in the eyes of some to be the cause of reduced social interaction.