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3.79 AVERAGE
3.79 AVERAGE
I have read all of Jami's books except one and have loved them. The Middlesteins was my very first audiobook and it wowed me. This one fell short for me. It was well written and I enjoyed that but I just didn't care about what she was telling me, which makes me feel bad as it was about her life but she didn't sell me on it like she does in her fiction. It was alright but it wasn't for me.
Attenberg can write. She is a professional writer, period. I didn’t find her life particularly of note (in a way where you could say this memoir is about xy or z) or the idea of a memoir rooted in writing to be particularly of interest to me and YET the book held my attention in a real way. That is a testament to Attenberg’s skill as a writer and sentence crafter. Ultimately the book fizzled toward the end, but mostly the book holds.
DNF. I love Attenberg’s fiction and looked forward to this but it feels a bit scattered and not super cohesive so I was struggling with staying interested. I think I will try again another time.
More a note than a review: I listen to this book rather than read it and finally gave up at about 75%. I wouldn't even post this, but the narrator is not Attneberg herself so I don't feel so bad.
I loved a lot of this book, but the narrator was so off-putting, I quit. I'll try it again later in print.
I loved a lot of this book, but the narrator was so off-putting, I quit. I'll try it again later in print.
It was a thrill and a comfort to read the words of someone who also lives very much inside her own head. This was entirely so strange and familiar all at once.
slow-paced
Perhaps it's not surprising that I adored this book. I have long admired Jami Attenberg's writing, but if we're being honest, I think I admired her life more. She's a single woman who has found her own way in the world, making a home in New Orleans, but also in the writing world, where she has fought to make her living from writing and built a supportive and inspiring community through her generosity on social media and #1000wordsofsummer and her craft newsletter.
This memoir in essays is about the journey to do all of those things, but it's also about travel and romance and friendship and family and growing up and making mistakes and words and triumphs and failures. I underlined so many lines because they felt like they were taken straight from my brain.
Lines like:
"As if I could solve the mystery of myself through understanding someone else."
"I knew home was in the books for me."
"I have always slipped into discomfort around affluence."
"I was aware I lived on another planet, but I wasn't quite sure why...I am still flattered when people want to be my friend."
"Do you know this continuous tension of needing and not needing people? Knowing they're nearby, happy they're there, but wishing them away, too."
"It was just so hard not to notice things. I could never shut off my general state of awareness."
"I mistake control of my outward appearance as architecture for my soul."
"The books we carry with us when we travel become a part of that journey."
"A lifetime of the observing of others awaited me, and perhaps I already knew that, I was so comfortable with the behavior, even if part of me knew it would be nice to have that kind of fun, too."
"Who knows what my life would have been like if I'd had any confidence in my appearance as a youth."
"I did not want to change anything about my life--I had worked so hard for it--but also at that moment, I did not want to be alone. I was exhausted with doing all the work of being on my own. I wanted someone to dine with at the nicest restaurant in town."
"I knew that I would live with a certain kind of heartache forever, that it had been ingrained in me since birth somehow. But maybe there could be moments where I soothed it."
Anyway, I loved it. My only criticism? I wanted to read more about her dog!
This memoir in essays is about the journey to do all of those things, but it's also about travel and romance and friendship and family and growing up and making mistakes and words and triumphs and failures. I underlined so many lines because they felt like they were taken straight from my brain.
Lines like:
"As if I could solve the mystery of myself through understanding someone else."
"I knew home was in the books for me."
"I have always slipped into discomfort around affluence."
"I was aware I lived on another planet, but I wasn't quite sure why...I am still flattered when people want to be my friend."
"Do you know this continuous tension of needing and not needing people? Knowing they're nearby, happy they're there, but wishing them away, too."
"It was just so hard not to notice things. I could never shut off my general state of awareness."
"I mistake control of my outward appearance as architecture for my soul."
"The books we carry with us when we travel become a part of that journey."
"A lifetime of the observing of others awaited me, and perhaps I already knew that, I was so comfortable with the behavior, even if part of me knew it would be nice to have that kind of fun, too."
"Who knows what my life would have been like if I'd had any confidence in my appearance as a youth."
"I did not want to change anything about my life--I had worked so hard for it--but also at that moment, I did not want to be alone. I was exhausted with doing all the work of being on my own. I wanted someone to dine with at the nicest restaurant in town."
"I knew that I would live with a certain kind of heartache forever, that it had been ingrained in me since birth somehow. But maybe there could be moments where I soothed it."
Anyway, I loved it. My only criticism? I wanted to read more about her dog!
funny
reflective
fast-paced