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3.79 AVERAGE
3.79 AVERAGE
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
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.
Amo los memoirs, disfruté mucho las ideas y reflexiones de Jamie!
slow-paced