It's a Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood

I was so excited when Books & Beer Club selected The Good Neighbor: The Life and Work of Fred Rogers by Maxwell King for our biography/memoir month. After all, I'd fallen in love with Mister Rogers after seeing "Won't You Be My Neighbor" back in April at the Philadelphia Film Society Springfest, courtesy of my older daughter.

Fall in love, you ask? Well, yes. I was totally the wrong age for Mister Rogers when he first came on the national scene. I was already into double digits and Fred Rogers was just too weird. Whatever message he was promoting, I was already too "mature" and jaded to get it.

Since his death in 2003, though, I'd heard snippets of Fred Rogers' views, lots of his quotes. I'd seen his testimony before Congress. As an adult, I did understand him. And I liked what I was hearing. The documentary just stepped that up a notch. (I guess it's appropriate to add her that I sobbed, mostly happy tears, throughout the whole documentary. I believe there wasn't a dry eye in the house as the movie concluded. My daughter and I were sobbing together, as we clutched each other. He was reaching both of us, right where it counts.

Back to the book. I really wanted to love this book. It was just okay. I finished it early last week and then discussed it with Books & Beer on two days later.

The biography included lots of details of Fred Rogers life that I was really delighted to learn. The book had another thread, that about the development of television and even more details about the infancy of educational TV. Unlike most of the members of Books & Beer who were bored with the latter, I lapped it up. I'd taken a television class as an elective in high school and I worked for a summer of college as a typist at WNBC, the New York City NBC affiliate. I'm so grateful to folks like Fred Rogers for being so clear on what they thought educational TV should and shouldn't be.

I ended up co-leading the discussion about the book this past Wednesday evening. So I got to lead the discussion to the things I was curious about while reading the book. When did Fred Rogers first come into your life? Did it make a difference at what age that happened? (The answer to that is yes.) Is there a place for Fred Rogers in today's day and age? That inspired a passionate discussion.

Why was this very interesting book just okay? I wasn't thrilled with Maxwell King's writing. The book was tedious to read. There were lots of repetitive passages. At some points there were way too many details which slowed down the reading. And the "cast of characters" was cumbersome as well.

"Won't You Be My Neighbor" is currently being aired on HBO. I would 100% recommend the documentary. I'd only 75% recommend The Good Neighbor.