cover image Boy on a String: From Cast-Off Kid to Filmmaker Through the Magic of Dreams

Boy on a String: From Cast-Off Kid to Filmmaker Through the Magic of Dreams

Joseph Jacoby. Carroll & Graf Publishers, $26.95 (338pp) ISBN 978-0-7867-1711-8

Throughout a childhood spent being shuttled among foster homes and a ""school for wayward boys,"" filmmaker Jacoby was buoyed by a passion for entertainment that grabbed hold of him at age seven when he first saw a television set. Witnessing his mother being taken to an institution marked the beginning of Jacoby's ""childhood of perpetual loss"" that caused him to behave like ""a kid throwing jabs in anticipation of being knocked out,"" never feeling deserving of any praise or affection. This defensiveness proved useful during his nearly three-year stay at a home for troubled adolescents that Jacoby resented because it ""simply straitjacketed the underlying causes"" of his emotionally disturbed state ""and directed them inward."" He then went on to a successful career as a puppeteer, screenwriter, director and producer, but he dwells on and analyzes everything, writes in psych-speak and invokes childhood memories so frequently the book feels like a therapy session. Readers interested in foster children's stories might find Jacoby's experiences interesting, but his unfiltered reminiscing about his therapy progress, lists of his favorite childhood TV shows and the observation during a visit to one of his foster homes that ""I remembered the front door being a bit wider"" are superfluous at best. Jacoby clearly found revisiting his past therapeutic, and his success is impressive given the neglect he suffered in his youth; unfortunately, his insights on his upbringing and his noteworthy experiences in the entertainment business take a backseat to excessive introspection.