It’s not a good idea to write a review of a book when your eyes are still wet with the tears it caused you to shed. So I waited an entire day to see if the raw emotion evoked by David Small’s graphic memoir Stitches would abate a little before I told you about this [...]
Posts Tagged: Memoir
9
Jul 09
Finally pleased by one of the revered graphic novels of our time
Finally! Finally one of the High Holys of the graphic novel realm held up to the hype. After abandoning Watchmen and being disappointed by Sandman, I approached Maus with a bit of trepidation. Could it live up to the hype?
Hell yes.
I’ve read Anne Frank and Elie Wiesel. I’ve seen “Schindler’s List,” “Life is Beautiful,” and [...]
7
Jul 09
Rock & Roll June Book 4: Of little significance
By all laws of logic and mathematics, I should love Jeffrey Brown’s graphic memoir Little Things: A memoir in slices. We like the same music, we’re about the same age, we’re both writers, and this is the stuff that fills his book. Seriously, I should have a full-blown crush on this book right now.
And yet, [...]
5
Jul 09
The rise of high evil
When the Largehearted Boy proclaims that something is his all-time favorite ever, I run out and consume whatever that thing might be. That’s what fangirls do. I am still waiting for him to proclaim Michael Cera his all-time favorite Canadian ever, but that’s beside the point.
The point here is that LHB proclaimed that David B’s [...]
30
Apr 09
The year of magical thinking, not so magical
I picked up The Year of Magical Thinking because in his answers to the 6 questions we always ask, Bill Tuomala said he would take Joan Didion out to Jax. Plus, I vaguely remembered hearing great, great things about this memoir Didion wrote following the death of her husband.
Didion’s husband, writer John Gregory Dunne died [...]
1
Nov 08
The best book I’ve read all year
I’ve been trying to write about Elizabeth McCracken’s memoir An Exact Replica of a Figment of My Imagination for three weeks. I’ve read it twice and I’m still having a hard time finding the words. I do want to make this statement: This is unequivocally the best book I’ve read so far this year. This [...]
24
Sep 08
Juliana Hatfield’s book notes essay
You know what I like the most about Juliana Hatfield’s Book Notes essay? Not only does she list a Wilson Phillips song and talk of how much she and Evan Dando loved their album, but she disses their lyrical grammar. It’s more awesomeness than the law should allow. I haven’t read her memoir yet, but [...]
11
Aug 08
David Carr did the best he could
Let’s get this out of the way right off the bat, because some of you won’t make it to the end of this piece. David Carr’s memoir The Night of the Gun is really good. It’s dramatic, spell-binding, engaging, encouraging, and all sorts of good stuff you look for in a book. In fact the [...]
4
Mar 08
Lies, memoirs, emotional honesty, and scaring The Deets
Sometime last year or the year before that, I spent hours at Grumpy’s with Jags and The Hottie discussing the bullshit that is dubbed “creative non-fiction.” That designation as a writing genre drives me nuts. Jags and The Hottie tried to get me to understand that “creative non-fiction” is a totally legit genre and that [...]
22
Feb 08
Why is corporate America looking for rock stars?
I’ve noticed an alarming trend in the want ads lately. It seems “rock star” is the adjective du jour when describing the employees that companies want to hire. Even Hell, Inc. is looking for “rock stars” now that they got rid of all of us mid-tempo balladeers.
It’s an interesting choice of words, and maybe [...]
