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emmashutup 's review for:
I Came All This Way to Meet You: Writing Myself Home
by Jami Attenberg
emotional
reflective
When I was reading this audiobook, I kept forgetting about it, and I mainly read it while exercising, and honestly mainly finished it because I had so many long car rides in the last couple of weeks. That to me says this wasn't exactly a success.
It's a shame, because I do think Jami Attenberg is a talented writer on the sentence level. What she lacks here is focus. The vast majority of these essays started on one theme, slid into another and another, and had me totally lost by the time we returned to the original theme.
As far as the subject matter went, I wanted a little more variety here; how many times can we read about the difficulties of being a career author who is no more than moderately successful and not particularly well known? It's compelling for one or two essays, but not almost a whole book. I did enjoy a few of Attenberg's travel stories, but they often blended together.
The one essay that truly stood out to me was Attenberg's account of her sexual assault by a close friend in college. Her descriptions of the nature of this friendship, one that it pained her to lose even in light of the friend's abuse and manipulation, are poignant and realistic.
But one good essay does not a good essay collection make!
Note on the format: I listened to the audiobook, read by Xe Sands. I wasn't a huge fan of her narration; her tone is a little too casual for some of the essays IMO.
It's a shame, because I do think Jami Attenberg is a talented writer on the sentence level. What she lacks here is focus. The vast majority of these essays started on one theme, slid into another and another, and had me totally lost by the time we returned to the original theme.
As far as the subject matter went, I wanted a little more variety here; how many times can we read about the difficulties of being a career author who is no more than moderately successful and not particularly well known? It's compelling for one or two essays, but not almost a whole book. I did enjoy a few of Attenberg's travel stories, but they often blended together.
The one essay that truly stood out to me was Attenberg's account of her sexual assault by a close friend in college. Her descriptions of the nature of this friendship, one that it pained her to lose even in light of the friend's abuse and manipulation, are poignant and realistic.
But one good essay does not a good essay collection make!
Note on the format: I listened to the audiobook, read by Xe Sands. I wasn't a huge fan of her narration; her tone is a little too casual for some of the essays IMO.