"A Pirate's Life for Me": The autobiography of Mike Mennard

Over the years Professor Mike Mennard has written many books including “Can't Keep My Soul From Dancing,” “Shall We Gather at the Potluck” and “To the Ledge at the Edge of the Universe.” This year, though, he has been working on something a little different: an autobiography. The book has stories from his time in a punk rock band, the year he spent abroad in Italy and the stories from his Ukrainian grandparents. This is his effort to share the journeys he has been on, jokes he has heard and wisdom he has acquired. 

The story has many fun chapters and memorable quotes. “Life is better than I deserve” is a trademark phrase repeated throughout the book and many students might be familiar with from his classes. The origin of this phrase is revealed as having come from a trucker who picked Mennard up once when he was hitchhiking in Saskatchewan during the summer of his sophomore year. In his book Mennard writes,“There I was, down about life but young, able to attend college, traveling. The gentleman beside me was old (or at least he appeared so to me), didn’t finish high school, had been working the same job for the past 20 years, yet he was happy despite it all. Despite the cold winters and long days and weeks away from his family, he was still happy. Before I had found all this out, when I first hopped into the truck, I asked him how life was as a trucker. He grinned at me with a crooked smile and said, ‘Life is better than I deserve’” (p. 109). It is the fun and strange interactions, like the one above, that really makes the book something unique.

Some of my favorite chapters involved Mennard’s career as a musician. His musical origins began in the seventh grade when he and some friends started a band called Prodigal Sons. The band continued casually for several years with Mike as its lead guitarist. He went on to join a punk rock band in college and pursue other interests like song writing and beat poetry at the same time.The title of his book is actually a reference to Mennard’s music and is explained in chapter 14 entitled “Yo Ho!''. Many things changed for Mike during and in the time after college. In his junior year he had left the punk group to pursue song writing and literature more fully. These pursuits greatly expanded Mennard’s interests and led him to discover that he enjoyed writing children’s music. He came out with a number of songs centered around pirates such as “Pirates do the Darndest Things,” “It's a Pirate's World,” “Men on a Dead Man’s Chest” and many more.

This book is a wild ride full of unexpected surprises and daring adventures, as well as heartfelt moments and humor. I would highly recommend it.

By Sierra Lastine