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… |
wettbüro braunschweig
Look at my web blog … Live sportwetten ergebnisse (Socialsocial.social)
wettseiten test
Take a look at my page :: comment-2168014
http://clearmedshub.com/#
Clear Meds Hub: ClearMedsHub –
erfahrungen wett tipps ai
My blog post; wettanbieter neu (http://www.demilked.com)
Ever Trust Meds Ever Trust Meds EverTrustMeds
https://vitaledgepharma.com/# VitalEdgePharma
wetten online deutschland
Look into my homepage: comment-108712
Buy Cialis online: EverTrustMeds – EverTrustMeds
Clear Meds Hub
https://clearmedshub.shop/# ClearMedsHub
Bangsawan88 Bandar Permainan Taruhan Online Uang Asli Terbaik Dan Terpercaya 2025
ClearMedsHub: Clear Meds Hub –
EverTrustMeds: Ever Trust Meds – Buy Tadalafil 5mg
ClearMedsHub: Clear Meds Hub – ClearMedsHub
https://clearmedshub.shop/# Clear Meds Hub
ClearMedsHub ClearMedsHub ClearMedsHub
https://clearmedshub.com/# Clear Meds Hub
https://evertrustmeds.com/# Buy Cialis online
VitalEdgePharma: VitalEdge Pharma – VitalEdge Pharma
Cialis without a doctor prescription Buy Tadalafil 10mg Cialis without a doctor prescription
VitalEdge Pharma: VitalEdge Pharma – boner pills online
VitalEdgePharma: ed prescription online – best ed pills online
VitalEdge Pharma: VitalEdge Pharma – VitalEdgePharma
http://vitaledgepharma.com/# cheapest ed meds
Clear Meds Hub ClearMedsHub
live online wetten Startguthaben ohne einzahlung verbot
https://evertrustmeds.shop/# EverTrustMeds
sportwetten wo am Besten wett apps
wett Sportwetten Tipps Kaufen Legal heute vorhersage
EverTrustMeds Ever Trust Meds Ever Trust Meds
https://evertrustmeds.shop/# Ever Trust Meds
beste online wetten anbieter
Also visit my blog post: bester wettanbieter schweiz; Socialrus.Com,
EverTrustMeds: EverTrustMeds – Buy Tadalafil 20mg
EverTrustMeds: EverTrustMeds – Ever Trust Meds
VitalEdge Pharma: ed medications online – VitalEdgePharma
https://evertrustmeds.com/# EverTrustMeds
EverTrustMeds Ever Trust Meds Buy Tadalafil 10mg
VitalEdgePharma: VitalEdge Pharma – VitalEdgePharma
http://clearmedshub.com/# ClearMedsHub
http://evertrustmeds.com/# EverTrustMeds
sichere sportwetten bonus deutschland heute
Clear Meds Hub ClearMedsHub
wett tipps ergebnisse
My blog post: Wetten vergleich (https://anotepad.com)
wettbüro ludwigshafen (Lydia) rostock
türkei österreich wetten
my web blog :: beste wettanbieter paypal (Blanche)
EverTrustMeds: EverTrustMeds – EverTrustMeds
: –
get ed prescription online: online erectile dysfunction – cheap ed meds online
https://evertrustmeds.shop/# cialis for sale