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4.01 AVERAGE
4.01 AVERAGE
emotional
funny
hopeful
informative
inspiring
lighthearted
reflective
Several years ago, I came across a documentary titled "I Like Killing Flies." It was about Kenny Shopsin, and I loved it. Not long after, I bought his cookbook/memoir, "Eat Me." Now, having read his daughter's memoir, I feel like I've finished a trilogy of sorts. I wish I could have eaten at their family's restaurant. Lovely memoir.
lighthearted
medium-paced
I’m just obsessed with Tamara Shopsin’s writing style. It’s so refreshing—matter-of-fact and almost childlike while being filled with humor, insight, and empathy.
“Before Morton Street, Ilsa had lived in Ibiza. I don’t know what she did there. Likely worked as a laser-accurate typist. On Morton Street she lived next to the buddy building.
Her building had a problem with cockroaches.
It happens.”
There is not much of a story to this memoir, it’s a collection of brief and sometimes uninteresting memories but I'd still read anything she writes.
“Before Morton Street, Ilsa had lived in Ibiza. I don’t know what she did there. Likely worked as a laser-accurate typist. On Morton Street she lived next to the buddy building.
Her building had a problem with cockroaches.
It happens.”
There is not much of a story to this memoir, it’s a collection of brief and sometimes uninteresting memories but I'd still read anything she writes.
Artsy, yes
Name-dropping, yes
So a...2
Can I almost taste the food? yes
Best things in the book are the rocky miniature golf and a quote fromThurber.
But...life is now, and the book highlights that.
So a...3?
A goal that isn't too important makes you live in the moment, and still gives you a driving force. This driving force is a way to get around the fact that we will all die and there is no real point to life.
... What happens when you reach the stupid goal? Then what? You just find a new Arbitrary Stupd Goal.
Name-dropping, yes
So a...2
Can I almost taste the food? yes
Best things in the book are the rocky miniature golf and a quote fromThurber.
But...life is now, and the book highlights that.
So a...3?
A goal that isn't too important makes you live in the moment, and still gives you a driving force. This driving force is a way to get around the fact that we will all die and there is no real point to life.
... What happens when you reach the stupid goal? Then what? You just find a new Arbitrary Stupd Goal.
emotional
funny
informative
lighthearted
mysterious
reflective
fast-paced
Absolutely loved this. Graded down because some of it seemed unnecessarily rude but that’s for sure a part of the style. I don’t think the Store is a place I would enjoy as a customer but this storytelling painted such a vivid picture of what it meant to the people who loved it that I could definitely see the charm. The author is unapologetic. She uses a very unique writing form of short paragraphs that at times seem disconnected until you realize everything makes sense together. Love her! Second Shopsin book in a couple weeks.
Content Warnings
Minor: Ableism, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Pedophilia, Racial slurs, Antisemitism
I don't know about this. The world of Morton Street and The Store is a fascinating and charming one - if you're inside it. It seems people like Kenny and Willy are wonderful to the people they love and absolute monsters to the people they don't. Though all the descriptions of food made me salivate, I didn't find The Store appealing because it just seems caustic, exclusive. And though this book was easy to read, I found Shopsin's prose wooden and stilted a lot of the time, and her vignettes often failed to add up to much for me. All in all, an interesting read but not one I'd recommend. (I'd read a Shopsin cookbook, though!)
funny
lighthearted
reflective
medium-paced