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… |
[…] Knox (author of Musical Chairs) has published Types of Circus in fwriction : review – A short, literary, character story of […]
Super helpful! Keep it going — would love to see what’s next. Check my article: https://crimtour.com/vazhlyvi-posylannya/ !
вызвать проституток в калуге
Very insightful and well-written. I learned a lot from this! Pls check my website: https://emopat.xyz/ !
Excellent breakdown of a complex topic. Appreciate the clarity! Pls check my website: https://mentalguide.xyz/ !
pharmacy viagra malaysia: antibiotics online pharmacy – online pharmacy pain
us viagra online pharmacy: online pharmacy same day delivery – sildenafil online pharmacy
overseas online pharmacy: Pharm Express 24 – online pharmacy in usa
order medicine online: caring pharmacy viagra – minocycline pharmacy
sildenafil tab 50mg cost: sildenafil price canada – sildenafil 20 mg discount
20mg sildenafil best over the counter viagra 2017 buy viagra usa
cheap generic viagra india: VGR Sources – sildenafil in india
sildenafil 85: VGR Sources – viagra online canada generic
viagra generic in mexico: sildenafil 20 mg for sale – sildenafil otc uk
viagra super active canada female viagra where to buy buying viagra online
https://vgrsources.com/# india viagra tablets
viagra online buy usa: VGR Sources – viagra over the counter
cheap price sildenafil 100 mg: sildenafil mexico pharmacy – indian generic viagra
cost of sildenafil online: VGR Sources – female viagra otc
where to buy viagra uk viagra for women 2017 viagra professional canada
brand viagra online pharmacy: VGR Sources – viagra tablet 150 mg
viagra pills for sale: VGR Sources – how much is sildenafil 100mg
how to buy over the counter viagra: VGR Sources – where to buy viagra online australia
https://vgrsources.com/# buy real viagra online uk
where to buy viagra in india VGR Sources how to buy viagra online safely in india
buy viagra cheap online: VGR Sources – 100mg sildenafil 1 pill
viagra cream price in india: buy viagra tablet india online – buy viagra for female online india
best viagra pills: female viagra south africa – viagra fast shipping usa
buy sildenafil online usa: sildenafil generic without prescription – where can i buy cheap viagra online
cost of viagra 50mg 30 mg sildenafil chewable buy sildenafil uk
purchase viagra in india: buy viagra uk paypal – generic viagra 100mg pills
where can i buy viagra online safely: VGR Sources – prescription viagra
https://vgrsources.com/# viagra cream price in india
cost of viagra 2017: VGR Sources – generic viagra quick delivery
viagra 100mg tablet buy online sildenafil compare prices sildenafil 20 mg online prescription
generic viagra soft pills: VGR Sources – sildenafil online without prescription
how much is generic viagra: how to buy viagra over the counter – buy generic viagra online no prescription
buy sildenafil online india: VGR Sources – where to buy generic viagra in canada
femail viagra buy viagra online canada paypal where can i buy viagra online
cheap generic viagra 100mg canada: order generic viagra uk – sildenafil 100mg price canada
sildenafil 100mg uk price: VGR Sources – 25 mg viagra
sildenafil pharmacy: VGR Sources – viagra gel pills
https://vgrsources.com/# average cost of generic viagra
buy cheap sildenafil uk VGR Sources viagra pro
sildenafil online australia: VGR Sources – buy viagra online
viagra tablet online india: canada generic viagra price – generic india viagra
where to purchase female viagra: female viagra pill prescription – can you buy viagra over the counter in europe
buy generic viagra online in india cost of viagra 50mg buy female viagra online india
viagra price in india: viagra otc uk – otc viagra united states
viagra online rx pharmacy: erectile dysfunction viagra – buying viagra without prescription