Musical Chairs
Jen Knox
Indie Memoir/YA
[rating: 5/5]
Available in…
• Mobi/Kindle
… from…
• Amazon
• MobiPocket
Also in paperback
Some time ago, Jen Knox and I swapped memoirs. She sent me a copy of Musical Chairs, which explores her family’s history of mental health diagnoses, her years of strip-dancing, alcoholism, and estrangement, and her struggle for reconciliation. (That’s from the cover.)
I also sent her a copy of Love through the Eyes of an Idiot. In full disclosure, just as I had started reading her book, Jen sent me an email about mine:
I finally posted my review of your delightful book. Oh how it made me remember how lucky I am to have found Chris after all the relationships (if you can call them that) that came before him. He thanks you. I thank you, for writing a great read.
Truthfully, I’m gratified that Jen enjoyed my book. And I did really want to like hers as well— I always want to like a book from a fellow author, and it upsets me when I don’t. But I will tell you exactly what problems I had with Musical Chairs:
-
I ran across numerous line-editing issues, including misspelled words, bad punctuation (like ending a sentence with a comma, in at least two places), and sentences that made no sense in context. The best typo I found on page 152, where Jen wrote about working at the bookstore: “As I cleared dust from a self in the psychology section…” So, was that an ego or an id? (Ba dum bum.)
-
Some details were missing from spots in the story where I would naturally expect them, popping up as surprises elsewhere. For example, all the time Jen was staying with Miss Sarah and her daughter (in the chapter entitled “Miss Sarah”), I thought Sarah was a white, single mother. It was only much later in the book that I was told that Sarah (or at least her daughter) had darker skin, that she was married to a Latino who had treated Jen rudely, and that she had some pretty bizarre racial ideas.
-
Jen begins with a panic attack, and she concludes as the panic attacks disappear… I think. I have nothing against waxing eloquent, as she did in the epilogue; I’m just not sure how she concluded the story. (But otherwise the epilogue did leave me feeling uplifted and satisfied.)
All of my complaints were counterbalanced, however, by the fact that I literally couldn’t put the damn book down! That’s why I’ve been absent this week. I blew through the entire thing in a little over a day, immersing myself in her story every moment I could. Really, no joke, no exaggeration: I read until I got tired; then I napped, woke up, and continued where I left off; lather, rinse, repeat.
Truthfully, before I started the book, I half expected a melodramatic pity party for a life beset by personal tragedy and self-destruction. On the contrary, Jen drew me into her story, the story of a girl I could hardly believe existed.
At one point, I reclined in a hot bath with Jen’s book in one hand and a cup of Earl Grey in the other. I looked at the cup, a commemorative mug, dated November 20, 1994, for the centennial anniversary of the facility at which my Beloved interned. I suddenly realized that at that very time, Jen had run away from home, 15 years old, and was living with her 19-year-old boyfriend. My Beloved was about to launch her career, and during the same autumn, Jen was about to launch herself into boyfriends and sex and statutory rape and the real thing, erotic dances for money, fights and alcohol and the battle for control and delusions and psychosis and abandonment— But through it all, Jen seemed so… normal to me. I genuinely sympathized with her, felt for her in her quest, desired to reach out to her and provide what I saw she was missing in her life. And I smiled when she finally began to find it.
This is the reason I read independent memoirs, to meet people I might never otherwise know, through them to live experiences I could never otherwise fathom, and to win victories I would never otherwise have even pursued. And Musical Chairs generously filled that need.
-TimK
|
Musical Chairs |
Available in… |
http://spasmreliefprotocols.com/# buy tizanidine without prescription
журналы для автолюбителей avto-zhurnal-4.ru .
В таких случаях наркологическая клиника помогает не только вывести из запоя и поставить капельницу, но и выстроить долгосрочный план: обследование, медикаментозную поддержку, реабилитацию, работу с психологом. Это даёт шанс не просто восстановиться после конкретного эпизода, а перестать повторять один и тот же разрушительный сценарий.
Узнать больше – https://narkologicheskaya-klinika-voskresensk11.ru/chastnaya-narkologicheskaya-klinika-v-voskresenske/
omeprazole generic: buy prilosec online – omeprazole over the counter
Howdy! This post couldn’t be written any better! Reading this post reminds me of my
old room mate! He always kept chatting about this.
I will forward this page to him. Pretty sure he will have a good read.
Thanks for sharing!
Sweet blog! I found it while surfing around on Yahoo News.
Do you have any tips on how to get listed in Yahoo News? I’ve been trying for a while but I
never seem to get there! Many thanks
Когда человеку требуется немедленная медицинская помощь при алкогольной интоксикации, промедление может быть опасным. В таких ситуациях вызов нарколога на дом становится оптимальным решением. Клиника «КрасМед Трезвость» в Красноярске организует срочный выезд врача круглосуточно, обеспечивая квалифицированную помощь прямо по месту нахождения пациента. Такой формат позволяет избежать госпитализации, снизить тревожность и начать лечение в привычных домашних условиях, где человек чувствует себя спокойнее и безопаснее.
Углубиться в тему – выезд нарколога на дом красноярск
Hi my friend! I want to say that this post is awesome, nice written and include approximately all important infos.
I’d like to peer extra posts like this .
авто новости avto-zhurnal-3.ru .
скидка на первое бронирование отеля tury-i-puteshestviya-promokody-i-skidki.ru .
горящие путевки цены tury-i-puteshestviya-promokody-i-skidki-1.ru .
domeo мнение пользователей domeo мнение пользователей .
бронирование отелей со скидкой бронирование отелей со скидкой .
The promise of summer is that anything is possible. Jenny Han captures this hope. The PDF of the book is a vessel for that hope. The Summer I Turned Pretty is about the optimism of youth. Belly believes that this summer will be different, and she is right. The story is about the power of belief.
muscle relaxers for back pain: Spasm Relief Protocols – tizanidine hydrochloride
журнал автомобильный avto-zhurnal-1.ru .
журналы автомобильные avto-zhurnal-2.ru .
Многие тянут до последнего, считая, что к наркологу обращаются только в самых крайних случаях. На деле показаний для консультации гораздо больше, и они часто появляются задолго до того, как человек впервые оказывается в запое или не выходит из состояния опьянения несколько дней подряд.
Подробнее – наркологическая клиника воскресенск
Наши опытные наркологи регулярно повышают квалификацию и используют современные методики для быстрого восстановления пациентов после запоев.
Подробнее тут – http://kapelnica-ot-zapoya-nizhniy-novgorod0.ru/vyzvat-kapelniczu-ot-zapoya-nizhnij-novgorod/
Лечение при запое строится поэтапно. Каждый шаг направлен на устранение симптомов интоксикации и постепенное восстановление функций организма. В таблице ниже приведена структура работы врача при выезде или лечении в стационаре.
Получить больше информации – вывод из запоя вызов на дом
http://spasmreliefprotocols.com/# buy methocarbamol
журнал авто журнал авто .
Thanks for the marvelous posting! I quite enjoyed reading it,
you are a great author. I will be sure to bookmark your blog and may come back sometime soon. I want to encourage continue your great posts, have a nice day!
https://gastrohealthmonitor.shop/# Gastro Health Monitor
Врач уточняет, как долго продолжается запой, какие симптомы наблюдаются и присутствуют ли сопутствующие заболевания. Тщательный сбор информации позволяет оперативно подобрать необходимые медикаменты и начать детоксикацию.
Получить больше информации – https://kapelnica-ot-zapoya-tyumen0.ru/postavit-kapelniczu-ot-zapoya-tyumen