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3.79 AVERAGE
3.79 AVERAGE
emotional
reflective
slow-paced
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual assault
Moderate: Drug use, Fatphobia, Rape
Minor: Suicidal thoughts
Enjoyed reading a favorite author’s life journey - especially the saving grace of our shared city, New Orleans.
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
I met Jami around 2009, through an Austin friend. We went to her reading at BookPeople. She was, as she says here, not yet a successful author. But I thought she was chill as hell and have followed her public life on social media ever since. I haven't read all of her books, but after this, I'm going to return to those I skipped. This memoir comes at a turning point in my writing life, and for that, I'll be forever grateful. Thank you, from a woman who also loves ossuaries, solitude, having a guest bed for friends, and floating in the sea, adrift in my own mind. Thank you.
Thank you to NetGalley, Ecco, and LibroFM, for providing both print and audio versions of Jami Attenberg’s memoir, I Came All This Way to Meet You: Writing Myself Home.
Author Jami Attenberg examines what it means to live a creative life, especially during times of doubt and struggle. Although previously published, Attenberg didn’t obtain commercial success until her third novel. The Middlesteins ( brilliant and worth adding to your TBR pile) was published in 2012. Attenberg details changes that she made that helped this success, such as changing agents and marketing strategies. I think in many situations, people would feel defeated if their first or second novel wasn’t a big success, but Attenberg shows that persistence and a shift in strategy can pay-off dividends.
I Came All This Way to Meet You is pitched as a book for writers, and it does give great insight into the publishing process and writer’s life, but really I think it is a great memoir to encourage anyone to keep following their dreams, no matter what they may be. Attenberg has tenacity. She has a love for writing that keeps her going even when money is scarce and times are tough. I liked reading about her travels around the United States and how different landscapes and communities inspired her imagination. I was reminded to take opportunities in whatever form they may present themselves and to focus on the present while working towards the future.
Author Jami Attenberg examines what it means to live a creative life, especially during times of doubt and struggle. Although previously published, Attenberg didn’t obtain commercial success until her third novel. The Middlesteins ( brilliant and worth adding to your TBR pile) was published in 2012. Attenberg details changes that she made that helped this success, such as changing agents and marketing strategies. I think in many situations, people would feel defeated if their first or second novel wasn’t a big success, but Attenberg shows that persistence and a shift in strategy can pay-off dividends.
I Came All This Way to Meet You is pitched as a book for writers, and it does give great insight into the publishing process and writer’s life, but really I think it is a great memoir to encourage anyone to keep following their dreams, no matter what they may be. Attenberg has tenacity. She has a love for writing that keeps her going even when money is scarce and times are tough. I liked reading about her travels around the United States and how different landscapes and communities inspired her imagination. I was reminded to take opportunities in whatever form they may present themselves and to focus on the present while working towards the future.
Jami can write a sentence, whew.
A great collection of memoir/essay about, basically, figuring out oneself later in life. Sometimes you have to move around and crash in a lot of different places before you get the right pieces together.
A great collection of memoir/essay about, basically, figuring out oneself later in life. Sometimes you have to move around and crash in a lot of different places before you get the right pieces together.
‘I did not know yet how books would save me over and over again. I did not know a book was a reason to live. I did not know that being alive was a reason to live.’
Audiobook review: listening to
Jami tell stories from her life was the perfect way for me to ‘read’ her book. It was like listening to a friend tell you about the most significant moments in her life.
I enjoyed her stories about the writing life the most. As a book lover, I have often romanticized what the life of an author would be like, but Jami quickly dispels any romantic notion about that idea. To make your living writing takes grit. Her life has often been lonely and she often drifted from one’s friends couch to the other trying to make it.
Her story about being sexually assaulted by a friend in college was the most significant story, for me, in her book. She details the repercussions SHE faced for reporting it to her RHD. It was a trauma that left her suicidal, yet, through it all, the quest to write is what helped her survive and kept her going.
I recommend this book for anyone who likes to read about writing for a living or if you’ve enjoyed Jami’s books in the past.
In I Came All This Way to Meet You: Writing Myself Home, Jami Attenberg's frankness and transparency grip readers, as they watch her struggle and succeed, inching closer towards her goal of writing.
Her first essay focuses on her relationship with her mother, and I was touched by the way she honestly and gently shares. Attenberg's skill is apparent, and I was utterly delighted by what I view to be a perfectly formed sentence in chapter two, one that goes on and on with the sparsest of punctuation but heaps of interest when describing her hometown.
This is a love story about writing, with affirmations and encouragement for others, told through her travels and relationships.
(I received a digital ARC from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for my honest review.)
Her first essay focuses on her relationship with her mother, and I was touched by the way she honestly and gently shares. Attenberg's skill is apparent, and I was utterly delighted by what I view to be a perfectly formed sentence in chapter two, one that goes on and on with the sparsest of punctuation but heaps of interest when describing her hometown.
This is a love story about writing, with affirmations and encouragement for others, told through her travels and relationships.
(I received a digital ARC from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for my honest review.)
emotional
funny
hopeful
inspiring
lighthearted
reflective
medium-paced
adventurous
challenging
fast-paced
I'm not going to lie, I didn't really enjoy this. That feels mean and bad to say about a memoir, and especially about a book where I have - admittedly!! - folded down so many corners on so many quotes. It is definitely not without it's moments of beauty, inspiration, use. There were some excellent parts, in particular the very last chapter. However, I found the structure difficult to follow, there was no logical thread and it seemed like a set of disparate essays rather than a cohesive book - with even references to previously-discussed periods being treated in an oddly new way. I spent a lot of the book wondering what the "point" was, when I would finally make some kind of sense of Attenberg's narrative. Then again, I appreciate that she owes us nothing: least of all to provide her own story in any form other than she wishes. However, I think my feelings towards Attenberg are unfortunately underscored by the fact that I just didn't gel with her, or at least the version of herself in this memoir. She just seemed full of complaints for situations she had wilfully chosen. I wanted to shout, don't you know there are people with real problems in this world? And that's not to say that she did not have real problems, of course she did. But so much of it was self-indulgent moaning about non-problems.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual assault