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Here Comes Everybody: The Story of The Pogues
Here Comes Everybody: The Story of The Pogues
James Fearnley | 2012 | Biography
(0 Ratings)
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"Another music pick, this time from James who is the accordion player in The Pogues. I read his memoir, Here Comes Everybody, about half way through writing my own, and it made me go back and change some things as it was just so good. It made me really think about my own writing and how I could improve it. Even if you’re not a huge Pogues fan it’s well worth a read."

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Notes From The Underground
Notes From The Underground
Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Max Bollinger | 2011 | Fiction & Poetry
6.0 (1 Ratings)
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"This still feels like one of the most radical books I’ve ever read. It’s considered to be the first existential novel. It’s the memoir of a nameless retired civil servant in Saint Petersburg who’s staging a protest against rational thought and says things like “Talking nonsense is the sole privilege mankind possesses over the other organisms. It's by talking nonsense that one gets to the truth! I talk nonsense, therefore I'm human.”"

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Close to the Knives: A Memoir of Disintegration
Close to the Knives: A Memoir of Disintegration
David Wojnarowicz, Olivia Laing | 2017 | Art, Photography & Fashion
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"Published just before he died of AIDS, Wojnarowicz’s memoir is a classic of outlaw literature and political fury. Wojnarowicz — who was a great artist as well as writer — wheels through his wickedly difficult childhood, the deaths of friends and lovers, great sex writing, thoughts about art, screeds against the likes of Jesse Helms, all the while facing down his own imminent demise. It’s sad, funny, angry and transporting, a kaleidoscope on fire."

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Klotsvog
Klotsvog
6
6.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
3.5* If you’ve ever wanted to understand what the term “unreliable narrator” means, the story of Maya Abramovna Klotsvog, who lives in the USSR after WWII, by Margarita Khemlin is an excellent example. Told like a memoir, this novel translated by Lisa C. Hayden, seems simple but is very different. See what I thought about it in my #bookreview here. https://tcl-bookreviews.com/2019/08/23/but-that-is-not-my-point/
  
Hollywood Park
Hollywood Park
Mikel Jollett | 2020 | Biography
10
10.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
Hollywood Park, by Mikell Jollett, is an eloquently written memoir of heartbreak, identity, and turmoil. It is the story of a broken boy that grows into a man that wants not only to understand why he is broken but also how to fix the parts that he can. He spent his childhood memorizing and reciting the serenity prayer; as an adult he finally understood the line about changing the things he can.
  
Born a Crime: Stories from a South African Childhood
Born a Crime: Stories from a South African Childhood
Trevor Noah | 2017 | Biography
10
9.2 (16 Ratings)
Book Rating
Noah’s wit and charm (1 more)
Frank discussions of racism, poverty, and family
Some of the humor could be too much at times and border on being offensive (0 more)
A stellar memoir
For those that don’t already know who Trevor Noah is, he is a comedian from South Africa that is now the current host of The Daily Show, taking the place of Jon Stewart when he retired. Trevor is an accomplished polyglot, speaking 9 languages fluently and has some fluency in several more. In much of his comedy he talks about his difficulties with racial identity having been born during apartheid to an African mother and a Swiss father. Apartheid was a system of institutionalized segregation in South Africa that lasted from the 1940’s to the 1990’s.

The book is bursting at the seams with humorous anecdotes about growing up as the wild child in his family. Getting in trouble, trying to outrun and outsmart his mom, committing petty crimes with friends, striking out with girls; Trevor’s life was colorful in no small part because of his mother. In interviews Trevor has stated that his memoir became sort of an open love letter to his mother, Patricia Noah–a fiercely independent woman that refused to be held down by her race or gender and sought to show her son the world outside of apartheid South Africa, who tried to save her son from the cruelty of the world.

“The world doesn’t love you. If the police get you, the police don’t love you. When I beat you, I’m trying to save you. When they beat you, they’re trying to kill you.”

The last chapters had me sobbing which was something that I hadn’t anticipated. Trevor mentions his step-father in the early chapters in passing, like a dark cloud that hung over his family’s life. I wasn’t prepared for the deeply troubling and heartbreaking portrait of a loving family ripped apart by abuse and the failures of law enforcement to prevent tragedy despite numerous attempts to get help.

I was already a fan of Trevor Noah, having watched some of his stand-up comedy and was overjoyed when he took over The Daily Show. From this memoir I have a newfound respect for Trevor not only for the horrendous abuse and racism he has endured, but how he allowed these things to shape who he is. He approaches issues of race, identity, poverty, and abuse with honesty and was able to articulate his feelings on topics that I have been struggling with for years. This memoir was surprisingly cathartic to me as someone that has struggled both with a mixed racial background and as a survivor of domestic abuse.

This was a wonderful memoir that really showcased that even in the darkest of places one can still find hope and strength in love. It was both insightful and laugh out loud funny, even if some of the humor could be viewed as highly offensive. I really enjoyed this memoir and am happy that I read it, it’s definitely going down on my shelf as a favorite.