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3.63 AVERAGE
3.63 AVERAGE
tense
slow-paced
I would have considered myself a life-long HUGE fan before reading this. I’ve seen her live at least 5 times and own at least one copy of everything she’s ever done. After reading this, holy shit I don’t know if I can even do it anymore. The book is often racist or ill informed. She uses so many thesaurus words that it is cringey. But what is worst of all—this bad ass 90s rocker spends the whole book talking about men. Every single piece of this memoir is about her relation to a man. It’s so sad and boring. Nothing deeper than that. It’s 17 separate brunch conversations with the friend who only wants to talk about her ex boyfriend. We could have all done without the entire chapter about how she had #metoo stories but Ryan Adams isn’t as bad as most of them so he shouldn’t be cancelled!!! Holy hell her editor should be fired.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Racism, Rape, Sexual harassment
challenging
reflective
slow-paced
emotional
hopeful
medium-paced
“So my vagina luxuriates in darkness like a blind albino cave salamander that needs constant wetting to keep its skin sleek and pliant.” The dealer passes here, fam. This may well be the ceiling of the unpleasant and pretentious that is this book. But what if it’s not??
lighthearted
reflective
It’s always nice to hear the author’s voice in an audiobook. She’s an interesting lady of my generation and as we both grew up in the Midwest, I identify with a lot of what she talks about in her memoir.
Exile in Guyville is one of my favorite albums and I think Liz Phair is one of the most interesting song writers of my generation and while I liked the short story memoir format of this book it also left me wanting. The stories are not in chronological order and I found myself often distracted without a sense for when a story took place. How old is her son at this point? Did this story take place after 9/11? Is this set around Whip Smart or Whitechocolatespaceegg? just the tiniest bit of information would have made this book significantly more engaging and while I get what she is going for and really loved big, adult sized portions of this book, the story about her son's birth in particular, I did finish the book not really knowing much more about Liz Phair than when I started it.
There was no way for me to read this book without bias because Liz Phair is a goddess who walks on the clouds. BUT I had some healthy skepticism and delayed reading for some time; I was scared it would be bad and I would be disappointed. Friends-- this book is very good. She writes stories/essays like she writes songs, and I enjoyed reading as much as I enjoy listening to Exile in Guyville on nonstop repeat. (I had 'Divorce Song' on a loop in my brain every time I picked up the book.) She is an actual human! Vulnerable, shy, empathetic, witty. She has crushes and failures and tantrums. I just can't say enough how much I like this book. Her near-perfection lives on.
slow-paced
Put down after about 50 pages. Each chapter is like a stand alone short story from her life. Interesting read but not for me. I prefer a continuing and complete story.