Proof positive you can be smart, angry, political, practical and a great read. Funny too.
Reviews and Comments
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Kevin Smokler rated A Coney Island of the mind: 5 stars
Kevin Smokler reviewed The Witches Are Coming by Lindy West
In this wickedly funny cultural critique, the author of the critically acclaimed memoir and Hulu …
Review of 'The Witches Are Coming' on 'Storygraph'
5 stars
Proof positive you can be smart, angry, political, practical and a great read. Funny too.
Kevin Smokler rated Alive in Necropolis: 3 stars
Alive in Necropolis by Doug Dorst
A fresh, imaginative debut novel about a young police officer in northern California struggling to keep the peace and maintain …
Kevin Smokler reviewed High Desert by James Spooner
Review of 'High Desert' on 'Storygraph'
3 stars
Punk Rock memoirs are, in my experience, beautiful, painful, sad, and necessary. But if you weren't a punk kid yourself (and I was not), a little confounding because the author has trouble seeing his or her way out of the most formative moments of their life. And what you end up with is a "you had to be there" story that makes sense if you were "there" and feels like a confusing pile of images and moments that don't add up to much.
Michael Patrick MacDonald's memoir ALL SOULS about his childhood in South Boston is simply one of the best memoirs I've ever read. The followup EASTER RISING, about his teenage punk years, is all too often a convoluted mess of characters, flashes of memory and grand statements. It makes no sense because the author doesn't take the extra step to HAVE it make sense. He just falls back …
Punk Rock memoirs are, in my experience, beautiful, painful, sad, and necessary. But if you weren't a punk kid yourself (and I was not), a little confounding because the author has trouble seeing his or her way out of the most formative moments of their life. And what you end up with is a "you had to be there" story that makes sense if you were "there" and feels like a confusing pile of images and moments that don't add up to much.
Michael Patrick MacDonald's memoir ALL SOULS about his childhood in South Boston is simply one of the best memoirs I've ever read. The followup EASTER RISING, about his teenage punk years, is all too often a convoluted mess of characters, flashes of memory and grand statements. It makes no sense because the author doesn't take the extra step to HAVE it make sense. He just falls back on, "well I guess you had to be there"
Distance gives clarity. And a memoir is a story, despite being autobiographical, told at a degree of remove so it can be told clearly. And when it's not, it loses what makes a story a story at all, namely the reader knows where they are. Doesn't mean it has to be clean and neat. But it does have to cleaned up enough to be a story and not the early page proofs of one.
All of which is to say HIGH DESERT is a beautiful, painful, sad and necessary story of growing into being a black punk kid in the racist high desert of Southern California in the 1990s. And it has whole sections where, if this wasn't your teenage story (and it wasn't mine) you'll wonder who characters are and why they matter and why they act the way they do and why this moment or that is so important when the author races right past it and doesn't bother to tell you or explain. Maybe HIGH DESERT seeks feeling rather than fact which is a reasonable goal. But it ends up unwittingly excluding the reader who didn't live the same adolescence as the author. And I think for a book all about finding your people, that isn't really the point.
Michael Patrick MacDonald's memoir ALL SOULS about his childhood in South Boston is simply one of the best memoirs I've ever read. The followup EASTER RISING, about his teenage punk years, is all too often a convoluted mess of characters, flashes of memory and grand statements. It makes no sense because the author doesn't take the extra step to HAVE it make sense. He just falls back on, "well I guess you had to be there"
Distance gives clarity. And a memoir is a story, despite being autobiographical, told at a degree of remove so it can be told clearly. And when it's not, it loses what makes a story a story at all, namely the reader knows where they are. Doesn't mean it has to be clean and neat. But it does have to cleaned up enough to be a story and not the early page proofs of one.
All of which is to say HIGH DESERT is a beautiful, painful, sad and necessary story of growing into being a black punk kid in the racist high desert of Southern California in the 1990s. And it has whole sections where, if this wasn't your teenage story (and it wasn't mine) you'll wonder who characters are and why they matter and why they act the way they do and why this moment or that is so important when the author races right past it and doesn't bother to tell you or explain. Maybe HIGH DESERT seeks feeling rather than fact which is a reasonable goal. But it ends up unwittingly excluding the reader who didn't live the same adolescence as the author. And I think for a book all about finding your people, that isn't really the point.
Kevin Smokler rated Congo: 3 stars
Congo by Michael Crichton
Deep in the darkest region of the congo, a field expedition dies mysteriously and brutally in a matter of minutes... …
Kevin Smokler rated Zia: 3 stars
Kevin Smokler rated Burn It Down: 5 stars
Kevin Smokler reviewed Putting the Rabbit in the Hat by Brian Cox
Review of 'Putting the Rabbit in the Hat' on 'Storygraph'
5 stars
Celebrity autobiographies do not interest me at all but Brian Cox's honest, wounded and committed look at his own life and how acting saved it and the seriousness at which he takes it is a joy. Forget that he's famous because he spends basically no time talking about his fame and not much more being the star of Succession. Read this if deep commitment to a craft is inspiring to you. And bonus for listening to the audiobook, read by Cox himself in his beautiful eastern Scots accent.
Celebrity autobiographies do not interest me at all but Brian Cox's honest, wounded and committed look at his own life and how acting saved it and the seriousness at which he takes it is a joy. Forget that he's famous because he spends basically no time talking about his fame and not much more being the star of Succession. Read this if deep commitment to a craft is inspiring to you. And bonus for listening to the audiobook, read by Cox himself in his beautiful eastern Scots accent.
Kevin Smokler reviewed Romantic Comedy by Curtis Sittenfeld
Review of 'Romantic Comedy' on 'Storygraph'
5 stars
So much fun I stayed up three straight nights to finish it. If you like Romantic Comedy as a movie genre, you will love this book about a budding romance between a late night comedy show writer and a famous musician. Even if you don't, this book has a cynicism and a world weary perspective I very much appreciated in a genre too often dominated by goo and giggling and happily ever after.
So much fun I stayed up three straight nights to finish it. If you like Romantic Comedy as a movie genre, you will love this book about a budding romance between a late night comedy show writer and a famous musician. Even if you don't, this book has a cynicism and a world weary perspective I very much appreciated in a genre too often dominated by goo and giggling and happily ever after.
Kevin Smokler rated Seventy Times Seven: 5 stars
Kevin Smokler rated Cool Gray City of Love: 5 stars
Kevin Smokler reviewed American salvage by Bonnie Jo Campbell (Made in Michigan writers series)
Presents a collection of stories that feature rural and working-class characters trying to cope with …
Review of 'American salvage' on 'Storygraph'
5 stars
Collection of short stories about working class white folks in Michigan. Like a Walker Evans photo in fiction. Funny, tragic, real.
Collection of short stories about working class white folks in Michigan. Like a Walker Evans photo in fiction. Funny, tragic, real.
Kevin Smokler reviewed Oscar Wars by Michael Schulman
Review of 'Oscar Wars' on 'Storygraph'
5 stars
Not the definitive history of the Oscars but a rollicking, sad history of the ceremony and what everyone wishes it really was. A must read for any movie lover.
Not the definitive history of the Oscars but a rollicking, sad history of the ceremony and what everyone wishes it really was. A must read for any movie lover.