A remarkable collection of hard-earned, melancholic wisdom.
Novelist Currier (A Gathering Storm, 2014, etc.) collects four decades of essays in this nonfiction volume.
In the 59 pieces contained in this volume, which Currier says is “as close as I may come to publishing a memoir,” he examines the relationships, jobs, passions, and health problems that shaped the course of his long writing life. From his childhood in conservative, suburban Georgia to his experiences in New York City’s gay community during the AIDS crisis to developments in LGBT civil rights, Currier mines his memory to present an intimate, if necessarily incomplete, self-portrait composed over many years. In “Passing Grades,” a 30-year-old Currier worries that he’s becoming less attractive to strangers on the street. “That Summer” has the author returning to a beach town where he once spent a season with a close friend, now dead. In “Lessons,” he describes coming out of self-imposed celibacy to have an affair with a man who’s married to a woman. These are all morality tales of a sort that an older man might wish he could share with his younger self. In many cases, the author attempts to figure out just where things went wrong—where a mistake was made, what it taught him, and whether he learned enough, at the time of writing, not to make such an error again. Currier is a masterful essayist, adept at lingering over a meaningful detail or capturing a complex emotion in a simple phrase. Of remembering his deceased friend, for example, he writes: “ ‘My friend’ becomes an emptied phrase repeated throughout the years.” There’s also charming humor, as when he describes seeing his first musical, a touring production of The Unsinkable Molly Brown: “it was the most inspirational thing I had ever seen; it was as if I had personally discovered the face of Jesus on the side of a potato.” The mix of voices and perspectives, all from one man at different ages and states of maturity, gives this collection a kaleidoscopic quality, and a multifarious vision emerges that’s simultaneously fractured and whole.
A remarkable collection of hard-earned, melancholic wisdom.Pub Date: Dec. 1, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-937627-17-1
Page Count: 430
Publisher: Chelsea Station Editions
Review Posted Online: Nov. 25, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2015
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
An enjoyable slice of 20th-century music journalism almost certain to provide something for most readers, no matter one’s...
Music journalist and musician Wald (Talking 'Bout Your Mama: The Dozens, Snaps, and the Deep Roots of Rap, 2014, etc.) focuses on one evening in music history to explain the evolution of contemporary music, especially folk, blues, and rock.
The date of that evening is July 25, 1965, at the Newport Folk Festival, where there was an unbelievably unexpected occurrence: singer/songwriter Bob Dylan, already a living legend in his early 20s, overriding the acoustic music that made him famous in favor of electronically based music, causing reactions ranging from adoration to intense resentment among other musicians, DJs, and record buyers. Dylan has told his own stories (those stories vary because that’s Dylan’s character), and plenty of other music journalists have explored the Dylan phenomenon. What sets Wald's book apart is his laser focus on that one date. The detailed recounting of what did and did not occur on stage and in the audience that night contains contradictory evidence sorted skillfully by the author. He offers a wealth of context; in fact, his account of Dylan's stage appearance does not arrive until 250 pages in. The author cites dozens of sources, well-known and otherwise, but the key storylines, other than Dylan, involve acoustic folk music guru Pete Seeger and the rich history of the Newport festival, a history that had created expectations smashed by Dylan. Furthermore, the appearances on the pages by other musicians—e.g., Joan Baez, the Weaver, Peter, Paul, and Mary, Dave Van Ronk, and Gordon Lightfoot—give the book enough of an expansive feel. Wald's personal knowledge seems encyclopedic, and his endnotes show how he ranged far beyond personal knowledge to produce the book.
An enjoyable slice of 20th-century music journalism almost certain to provide something for most readers, no matter one’s personal feelings about Dylan's music or persona.Pub Date: July 25, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-06-236668-9
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Dey Street/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 15, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2015
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK TO SCREEN
BOOK TO SCREEN
BOOK TO SCREEN
Stricter than, say, Bergen Evans or W3 ("disinterested" means impartial — period), Strunk is in the last analysis...
Privately published by Strunk of Cornell in 1918 and revised by his student E. B. White in 1959, that "little book" is back again with more White updatings.
Stricter than, say, Bergen Evans or W3 ("disinterested" means impartial — period), Strunk is in the last analysis (whoops — "A bankrupt expression") a unique guide (which means "without like or equal").Pub Date: May 15, 1972
ISBN: 0205632645
Page Count: 105
Publisher: Macmillan
Review Posted Online: Oct. 28, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1972
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