“Dan Yashinsky – Canadian author and storyteller, has collected his son Jacob Yashinsky Zavitz’s stories into a volume called I Am Full: Stories for Jacob. This collection of Jacob’s writing, stories and photos has been gathered in his memory. Jacob died in a car accident at age 26, since Jacob’s death, Dan often told the stories and was asked to compile them into a book to preserve them. Dan’s fearless record of Jacob’s life helps us come to know Jacob and shows us the universalism of the need to tell the story of one’s family. Reading the stories, we come to know Jacob and feel compassion for how Jacob lived his life with the genetic condition, Prader-Willi Syndrome (PWS). This syndrome caused him to never feel full no matter how much food he consumed. The stories show us his life, bound with this genetic condition, a life he lived with humour and courage. I was touched by Jacob’s stories of how he approached life with bravery and developed a killer wit.

I Am Full is humorous, real and earthy. We come to know Jacob and perhaps, know ourselves too, as we reflect on our own nuggets of family story. It is a funny and touching read for anyone who is interested in preserving family stories – the sad ones and the funny ones. It is a great example of how to hold together those little one-liners, jokes, anecdotes, poems, speeches, letters, notes, and sayings that form family lore.

Dan includes a note to grieving parents about the journey of love, loss and grief. I think that reading, I Am Full, a few pages at a time and reflecting on life and loss will provide comfort - for upon death we become story. Tell the story and love the story. ”

— Mary Hays The Storyteller

“I Am Full: Stories for Jacob is a heart-wrenching, humorous, and vivid account of the life of Jacob Evan Yashinsky-Zavitz, who was a pillar of Toronto’s St. Clair West neighbourhood. In July 2018, 26-year-old Jacob died from injuries sustained in a highway accident. His father, author Dan Yashinsky, had fallen asleep at the wheel. Yashinsky had been driving Jacob, Jacob’s best friend, Effie, and artist and musician Michael Pestel back from Montreal. Overwhelmed by grief six months after the fatal crash, which he and two other passengers survived, Yashinsky began writing what would become the series of vignettes that make up this book. Each is told in the first person from Jacob’s perspective, so part of him survives, too. “It was written as a way to keep his stories alive and present, and also to encourage others to become storekeepers for your own lost beloveds,” Yashinsky writes in the prologue.

Beginning with his birth, the book chronicles Jacob’s upbringing in St. Clair West, including his early diagnosis with Prader-Willi syndrome, a rare genetic condition that, among other things, causes insatiable hunger. Despite challenges, we follow Jacob as he becomes an expert fisher (he calls his reels his “Weapons of Bass Destruction”), a local jewellery-making entrepreneur, and, eventually, a crossing guard with the Toronto Police Service, saving a child’s life along the way.

Bolstering Jacob’s imagined voice throughout are examples of his actual poetry. There’s even. Keynote speech that he wrote for a fundraiser in Guelph for Prader-Willi syndrome research just months before his death.

The book also foregrounds other samples of the St. Clair West community, the sort of people who are sometimes overlooked but play a significant role in shaping our city’s neighbourhoods. Take Lisa, the gruff-seeming owner of World Class Bakers. “People don’t know this about her, but I would often see Lisa sending giant pots of soup over to the church across the street to feed homeless people,” Yashinsky, as Jacob, writes. “She never told people she was doing this, but I noticed. So when someone posts a nasty comment about Lisa, I tell the neighbourhood the truth about her, and how warm and generous she is,”

Jacob was known by his brother, Matty Zavitz, as the “Fresh Prince of St. Clair,” and this story not only solidifies that legacy but also enshrines a unique perspective on an iconic Toronto neighbourhood at a certain point in time. Too often — and to a fault — the focus is on preserving the physical character of a neighbourhood. I Am Full makes a strong case for maintaining the lived experiences of the characters who contribute to a place’s social fabric.”

— Josh Sherman Spacing Magazine

“Jacob Evan Yashinsky-Zavitz lived a life of courage and resilience in dealing with a genetic condition known as Prader-Willi Syndrom (PWS) which forces those with the disease to deal with intense hunger known as hyperphagia.  But what a rich life and full life Jacob created for himself, especially as a fisherman, a photographer, a jewellery maker, a poet, and a crossing guard.  A tragic death, at the age of 26,  as a result of a car accident, put his father, family and friends on a journey to deal with grief. 

In the Prologue to the book, Dan Yashinsky writes: “I started writing this chronicle about six months after Jacob’s death trying to find a way to remember, to grieve, perhaps to find a shred of meaning in this unspeakable loss.” Dan Yashinsky, master professional storyteller, began gathering texts that make up this requiem.  The ongoing journal that Dan kept recording his son’s adventures and misadventures, the unforgettable expressions Jacob uttered at all stages of his life, the trials and triumphs he experienced provided a rich source for the author to pay tribute to his son by presenting narratives in Jacob’s imagined voice as his guide. The anecdotes and reflections are written in the first person.  A collection of poems, speeches, letters, notes and photographs are compiled to paint a mighty portrait of this heroic hat-loving, fishing-loving, food-loving, joke-loving, family-loving human who learned to embrace his disability rather than ignore it. 
At his funeral, Jacob’s brother said: “love continues to exist in the world, even though (my) little brother has gone to be with his ancestors. Somehow, love remains”.

This is a life lived with love. This is a  book of LOVE.  This is a book of remembrance. 

It is a book written in the shadow of grief. It is funny. It is heartbreaking. It is filled with heart. And hands-on heart, it is the best book that I’ve read this year. ”

— Larry Swartz Dr. Larry Recommends

Read the full review at Dr. Larry Recommends.