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A review by boots
The Art of Asking; or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Let People Help by Amanda Palmer
4.0
This book, like so many of Amanda's projects, beat against my cynicism relentlessly. It's a little clumsy in places - I kept wondering what chronological order it's meant to be in - but that's what I expected. Her style is typically haphazard, and I'm sure several people worked to give it what structure was there. Being already familiar with her writing style, that didn't grate as it might for a new reader of hers.
It's an emotionally raw, honest, human memoir. Those traits are what connect her to her audience; they're the source of her greatest victories (like her Kickstarter) and her greatest trials (like the controversial poem for Dzhokhar). It comes across beautifully in the way she writes about pain and empathy, and when people try to reduce her to a list of problematic issues, that's the humanity they're avoiding.
Inevitably, I cried. I will read it again; I will most likely cry again. It hurts to open yourself up to the world after closing off so completely, and Amanda refuses to pretend that it doesn't.
She may not be your cup of tea - the Dita Von Teese story applies nicely to that - but I hope at least that you can respect the fearlessness on display in this book.
It's an emotionally raw, honest, human memoir. Those traits are what connect her to her audience; they're the source of her greatest victories (like her Kickstarter) and her greatest trials (like the controversial poem for Dzhokhar). It comes across beautifully in the way she writes about pain and empathy, and when people try to reduce her to a list of problematic issues, that's the humanity they're avoiding.
Inevitably, I cried. I will read it again; I will most likely cry again. It hurts to open yourself up to the world after closing off so completely, and Amanda refuses to pretend that it doesn't.
She may not be your cup of tea - the Dita Von Teese story applies nicely to that - but I hope at least that you can respect the fearlessness on display in this book.