Poet’s book of poems and prose recalls growing up in Las Vegas

Jennifer Battisti grew up connected what was past the outskirts of Las Vegas during the ’80s, a latchkey kid whose parents worked successful the casino manufacture and whose taste markers included Michael Jackson, the PEPCON explosion, household dysfunction and substance abuse.

Today, Battisti is simply a writer and writer who sometimes sees flashes of her ain Vegas puerility portion raising her 8-year-old daughter. In her caller book, “Off Boulder Highway” ($19, Tolsun Books), she explores coming of property successful Las Vegas done poesy and prose that’s candid, sometimes raw, and occasionally hopeful successful spite of itself.

While the memories are hers, the postulation volition resonate among Las Vegans of a definite property who retrieve Scandia Family Fun Center, Tom & Jerry’s, the Challenger detonation and Baby Jessica successful the well. And if immoderate of the coming-of-age themes are universal, astir are unsocial to increasing up successful Las Vegas.

“Both of my parents worked successful the poker industry,” Battisti says. “My dada was manager of the World Series of Poker for galore years. I was utilized to (him) moving a plaything displacement oregon graveyard. My ma was a cocktail waitress for galore years. It was much antithetic for maine to person friends connected the artifact who had dentists for dads.”

Family struggles

Poet, steadfast and erstwhile Clark County writer laureate Bruce Isaacson calls “Off Boulder Highway” an “extremely poignant and achy statement of what it was similar for her to beryllium increasing up successful our city. I deliberation it’s superb book. Her penning is truly characterized by a heavy humanity, perceptiveness and skill.”

Battisti, a Las Vegas native, grew up successful a vicinity eastbound of Boulder Highway — arsenic kids, she and her friends utilized to locomotion to Sam’s Town — successful a household that, she says, “was struggling with trauma, disablement and addiction. But successful a larger consciousness it was of the people we were increasing up in. The vicinity was struggling with a batch of things, (including) poorness and cause addiction.”

Battisti pulls nary punches, peculiarly successful recalling her ain youthful missteps. She writes candidly astir fads and music, drinking and drugs, household conflict, intersexual misadventure and pushing boundaries and paying the price.

The publication began arsenic “creative nonfiction,” Battisti says. She besides interspersed poems that refracted her experiences successful a antithetic manner. Then, midway through, “I started playing astir with fiction, which helps, I think, to soften immoderate of the heavier pieces successful the book.” Those writings amusement up arsenic lyrically aggravated bursts of surreal prose that service a chiseled purpose: “I’m hopeful it spoke to what we bash arsenic children — successful times of trauma oregon distress, imaginativeness tin go a coping mechanism.”

The effect is simply a hybrid enactment that “to maine feels truer to representation and time,” she says.

There’s humor, excessively — including an effort astir hiring a mermaid for her daughter’s day party, and a instrumentality connected a fashionable Valley Girl catchphrase — and present-day pieces touching connected parenting and recovery. Battisti hopes that, peculiarly successful the harder-edged coming-of-age pieces that marque up astir of the collection, “I don’t villainize anyone. That is not my intention.

“I deliberation it’s beauteous communal for families to beryllium dysfunctional. My anticipation was conscionable talking astir it tin link to readers who besides came from troubled families. But I don’t privation to constituent fingers oregon get sympathy. I conscionable tried to sanction it for what it is.”

Poetry arsenic a passion

Battisti’s passionateness for poesy was ignited erstwhile a teacher introduced her to Shel Silverstein successful 3rd grade. She started to write, conscionable for herself, “mostly therapeutic things to … get my feelings down. Once I started penning I ne'er looked back. It ne'er truly felt similar a prime to write. But a career, that came overmuch later.”

Her archetypal publication of poetry, “Echo Bay,” published successful 2018, received affirmative reviews, and her enactment has been published successful Desert Companion and respective literate journals. Her poem “Bristlecone successful Blue” appeared successful “Where We Live,” a graphic caller anthology for victims of the Route 91 Harvest Festival shooting (it’s reprinted successful “Off Boulder Highway”). Battisti besides is simply a participating teaching creator and co-director of the Alzheimer’s Poetry Project successful Clark County.

“So I’ve ever been writing,” Battisti says. “Once I got sober, I was capable to absorption a batch much vigor connected it. I deliberation I had a batch of interior demons to enactment retired earlier I could get astatine that … volition of being a writer and writing. So it was a 15-year detour conscionable struggling with addiction and struggling to get sober and to get anchored successful stability.”

Healing

Battisti says she talked implicit immoderate of the collection’s much intensely idiosyncratic pieces with household members. While they expected her to beryllium honest, “I don’t deliberation they knew I would spell arsenic acold arsenic it went,” she says.

“But it brought america person together, particularly with immoderate of the much hard things. It’s truly astir intolerable for maine to person a speech with my parent astir immoderate of the heavier things that happened erstwhile I was a kid, but if I constitute it down and nonstop it to her, she’ll work it and say, ‘That’s good’ oregon ‘That’s however it happened’ and someway we tin enactment done immoderate precise hard memories.”

Also, Battisti says, “I deliberation erstwhile my parent realized it was helping maine to heal, she was connected board. She was supportive of it.”

Battisti’s’s father, Jim Albrecht, died successful 2003, but she since has recovered a measurement of reconciliation with him. During her 20s, Battisti began to larn astir his puerility and accomplishments.

“I didn’t spot immoderate of that erstwhile I was a kid. Unfortunately, I was 26 erstwhile helium passed distant from cirrhosis — helium was besides an alcoholic — but I was truthful entrenched successful my ain alcoholism astatine property 26 and our narration was inactive precise overmuch fractured.”

But, she says, “I consciousness person to him now.”

Her daughter, Violet, 8, hasn’t heard her mom’s puerility stories yet, but Battisti expects that she volition someday,

“I person a batch of thoughts astir what it would mean for my girl to aboriginal work this,” Battisti says. “But, yet I privation her to turn up without feeling we person to support secrets.”

Contact John Przybys astatine jprzybys@reviewjournal.com. Follow @JJPrzybys connected Twitter.