5 comments about The Black Veil: A Memoir with Digressions.

1. Now that time has passed, and the bad reviews are remembered best as, well, examples of bad reviewing, why not revisit The Black Veil, and read it on its own terms?
   
   My guess is that you'll find, as I did, a really beautiful narrative, a work of sustained mystery, the kind of book (like the best of John Hawkes, W.G. Sebald, Marilynne Robinson) that will help the reader find a profound quiet, a meditative space, where comfort might be found in the complexities of things, and in finding a fellow traveler who whispers a familiar sad song.



2. Rick Moody's always been an author I admired. "The Ice Storm," obviously, is his best work in that his ranty style of writing found a perfect counterpart: the Watergate-era '70s. I've always admired his progressive use of punctuation (i.e. the comma, italicizing everything), run-on sentences and generally neurotic way of writing. There's something lyrical and sarcastic there, and it's not an easy way to tell a story--for either the writer or the reader. A style to marvel at, yes, but not always one you love (and one that sometimes dominates the story).
   
   And that's where Moody falters in "The Black Veil," I suppose: outside of it's grad school-esque underlying structure, his memoir takes a whole lot of pages to say very, very little. "The Black Veil" is supposed to be an experimental memoir, in that it's not only about Moody's specific decline into various addictions and psychoses, but also a kind of wide-spread condemnation of America itself. Kind of like "The Ice Storm," except this time Moody's using source texts from the early Puritan days (an endless list of books which he annotates in the back), rather than the commercialism of the '70s.
   
   Sounds intesting, right? Well... it's not, really. At times the source texts are compelling, but usually only in the stylized way Moody uses them (which avoids footnotes or even really telling you where the various quotes come from, other than sometimes italicizing them). It's kind of like in a pretty film (i.e. "Hero") where you find yourself marveling at the shot, rather than what's going on in the story. It's sad, but most of the time, the Puritan stuff is downright boring. The language is hard to get into, and it doesn't blend well with Moody's own story, which, as the memoir goes on, gets dominated by the Puritan stuff. Besides, if you want early American history, just go check out those books. Here, you get it in bits and pieces, which is frustrating within itself.
   
   Why is there so much early New England history and analysis packed into Moody's memoir? Well, the basic idea he came up with is that he's vaguely related to Handkerchief Moody, a man who may or may not have been the central inspiration for Hawthorne's "The Minister of the Black Veil." ... Again, a compelling thesis, but one that is explored and ultimately concluded with about as much satisfaction as those papers you shortchanged yourself through while getting your Bachelor's.
   
   I guess that's what makes this memoir, at the end of the day, one of those books you throw onto the "Back to the Used Bookstore" pile: it's intersting, sure, but there are tons of interesting books out there. And I get it: the themes, the attacks on America as violent and a people of colonizers, etc., I'm not stupid, I just don't really care b/c these themes were explored better elsewhere.
   
   If you're getting your PHD in English or like early American history, along with analysis, get this book. But if you're just into memoirs, esp. addiction-related ones, you may feel as though you've been cheated. "The Black Veil" is much more of an "essay with digressions," than it is a "memoir."
   
   If you want great memoirs, check out Jerry Stahl's "Permanent Midnight," or even Sylvia Plath's "The Bell Jar," which was probably a minor inspiration for Moody. So I give the book two stars on my scale, which is five stars for a masterpiece, four for Top Tens of the year, three for simply good, two for average, and one for bad (but I don't read bad books).
   
   Two stars. Interesting, but so-so.



3. ...and I did read the book from cover to cover. I was captivated by the interview that Moody did on NPR's Fresh Air and thought the book would offer more of the same. But where the radio interview offered an honest, intriguing look inward at depression and substance abuse, Moody's book was all over the place. The problem with the book wasn't so much a lack of restraint as a lack of any unifying theme.
   
   I was fascinated by the premise of an author searching his family tree for clues to his own identity. Add to that Moody's writing style--dense, detailed, and intricately designed--and it certainly looked promising. I kept thinking that the ever-lengthening sentences, the eclectic array of allusions and references, and the somber subject matter would eventually pay off, but the book ended before this happened.
   
   If this is starting to remind anyone of Faulkner, you're not far off; Moody's writing style has a lot in common with Faulkner on the surface. The two writers sound alike in a superficial way; however, where Faulkner eventually weaves his themes together in a way that is awe-inspiring, Moody just keeps on relating one esoteric (though well-worded) remembrance after another, with seemingly no reason for doing so.
   
   I suppose all this could be easily explained away with the thought that this is a memoir, not a novel. Even so, by the book's end, I was desperately wishing someone had made free use of an editing pencil. It took a while to adjust to run-on sentences which composed entire paragraphs, which cover two and a half pages apiece. But near the end of the book, as Moody describes a visit to a rock quarry and then goes off on a purposeless tangent about concrete, I could no longer suspend my disbelief. The Black Veil may bill itself as a memoir, but it best serves the function of a journal--a place to jot down all the disparate ideas that need to be recorded, so they can be used to better effect later.



4. First off, I'm not a huge fan of Moody's italics. He writes so well that they seem unnecessary; they're the equivalent often of someone jabbing you with a pencil as you're trying to study. This memoir is almost interchangeable from all the others by young writers who tell their story of grappling with broken homes, mood disorders, breakdowns, etc. However, there is almost no emphasis on the author's career, instead we get page after page of quotes of a distant relative, Hankerchief Moody, whose odd life interests the author (although there is never any guarantee from the beginning that they are actually related). While this may sound like a way to keep the book from getting bogged down in too much "I" time, it doesn't really work. When the author stops quoting his relative, he digresses into ruminations about various subjects such as school shootings and William Burroughs.

   To be fair, the reader is warned in the beginning about how the writer will digress. You can't say you haven't been warned. But by the time a writer pens a memoir, hopefully he or she is old enough to have pulled many of the threads together. Cliched though it is, Moody does not seem to have "come to terms" or had much closure on the rocky period he describes here. That would have helped. Or maybe just a skilled editor.




5. The "digressions" part of the subtitle primarily refers to the fact that this is not only a memoir but also a sort of family genealogy, or an attempt at one. Moody finds that he may be the descendant of a Reverend Moody who was fictionalized as the title character of Nathaniel Hawthorne's "The Minister's Black Veil." Digging through obscure histories and travelling about New England in an attempt to find out more about the man behind Hawthorne's self-loathing minister, Moody creates a sense of very powerful parallels to his own struggles with severe depression and drugs. These sections alternate without Moody making explicit connections between the two stories, but the format keeps the pages turning and the reader intrigued.

No comments about Threading the Snail: My Journey Through Deafness.

5 comments about Morning Has Broken: A Couple's Journey Through Depression.

1. This was a very well written book and very hard to put down. He hit the nail on the head when describing what it feels like to be beyond the pit of hell of depression. The only part that saddens me is that there was never any blame put on the flouroquinolone antibiotics, pain killers, Ambien and Xanax as possible causes of this black hole depression. They are all central nervous system depressants and I'd blame them before I blamed 9/11 and the other life stressors. I wish he and Emme would have researched the dangers of these drugs and they would have found that they often cause people to spiral into mental illness. Stopping and starting psychiatric drugs without slowly tapering also sends the brain into chaos, and leads to treatment resistant clinical depression. Phil, please don't ever think you can simply stop your medications once you believe you are well. You must taper them over periods of months and even years, or your depression will surely return ten-fold and be harder to treat than ever before.
   Thanks for sharing your story and dampening the stigma of depression.



2. I found out about this book when watching Oprah, and bought it the next day.
   After living with a depressed husband since January 2006, I finally found a book that gives me insight into how he is feeling and validation for many of my feelings. So much of this book is exactly what we have been going through although the ending to our journey has not surfaced as yet. I wish I could sit down and talk with the Aronsons, especially to thank them for sharing their horrific experience so honestly.
   I have read many, many, many books about depression in the last year and a half, the only other one I would recommend is "When Someone You Love is Depressed" by Laura Rosen, Ph D. and Xavier Amador, Ph.D.
   Canterbury, NH



3. This unique book gives insight from both the patient and caregiver's perspective on Phil Aronson's bout with major clinical depression. While their story was difficult for them to live through, as you read through the book it becomes obvious that this book would not have been written if Phil's depression had been "ordinary" and not lasted so long. Out of their ashes has come the fruit of hope for the rest of us. As of now this is easily one of the top five books available for men with depression.
   
   (........)



4. This book is a literal life saver. I had just finished reading this book about a week ago. It was an opportunity to learn first hand what a person experiencing clilnical depression feels and acts on.
   
   Then, I got an urgent call from my neighbor -- she had just received a desperate phone call from her daughter-in-law. My friend's son tried to leave their apartment and said he planned to jump off the bridge. My friend was shaking and crying out of control. I ran back to my apartment, grabbed Phillip and Emme's book. I told her about the book and there was hope for her son.
   
   We quickly consulted the resource references in the book for help for this young couple. I am confident they will now be able to get the guidance they need to work through this crisis.
   
   I want to express a heartfelt thank you, Phillip and Emme, for showing the way to other people to save the life of a loved one, or someone they don't even know personally. This book is an outstanding contribution to the world.



5. I could not put this book down. It is an insightful, honest account of a couple's experience to the depths and back up again. It is written in such an engaging manner that you just have to keep reading until you finish. This book gives strength and encouragement to anyone touched by depression, or any other major life struggle. (and who hasn't??) Thank you to Phil and Emme for bringing this topic out into the open and to the front burner. We can all benefit from this wonderful book!!!

5 comments about The Cry of the Gull.

1. This is an exquisite book, both heartbreaking and inspiring at the same time. Emmanuelle Laborit was born deaf into a hearing family, at a time when using sign language in public was a crime in France: it was considered obscene, and the law wasn't changed until 1976, well into the author's childhood. This created a tragic set of circumstances for those born deaf in France.
   
   The author was blessed to have college educated parents who were willing and able to look outside of their own culture to find what their child needed, and when her father decided they should learn sign language, he brought the family to Gallaudet University in Washington, DC for a month, where mother, father and child took part in an intensive sign-language immersion program.
   
   Laborit writes eloquently about the first seven years of her life, a time in which she had no formal language to express herself with. Until her parents made the decision to learn formal sign language, Laborit and her mother made up their own signs, but the problem with home signs is that they are understood only within the environment where they were created.
   
   I highly recommend this book to hearing parents of deaf children, as well as anyone working with deaf children and young adults. The insight provided here is invaluable.



2. Emmanuelle Laborit writes her autobiography with such expressive detail. Some parts were hard to believe what the deaf have to go through to let themselves be heard for others. I recommend this book for any parent of a deaf child. What choices they have to make in the education of their child. There are so many different choices. Emmanuelle expains how her education was, she did nearly everything. When she started to learn sign language the world became more understanding to her.



3. Author recounts troubles of a person born deaf in france,compounded by the fact that sign language was outlawed there as "too sensual" until 1979. It's also a beautifully written book which captures the softness and gentle love of words often found in many english-as-a-second-language authors {except,for her,english is a third language!}.

   I lost all my hearing suddenly in 1999. The whole world runs like a silent movie. I am excluded and don't understand what is going on around me anymore. This book offers insight,direction,hope. Maybe it will make people more sensitive to the cruel isolation of deafness.




4. Author recounts troubles of a person born deaf in france,compounded by the fact that sign language was outlawed there as "too sensual" until 1979. It's also a beautifully written book which captures the softness and gentle love of words often found in many english-as-a-second-language authors {except,for her,english is a third language!}.

   I lost all my hearing suddenly in 1999. The whole world runs like a silent movie. I am excluded and don't understand what is going on around me anymore. This book offers insight,direction,hope. Maybe it will make people more sensitive to the cruel isolation of deafness.




5. This book caught my eye, because I really only read non-fiction. My interest in human development has been encouraged by my rather stilted childhood. This book is written with such candidness, that you are literally enveloped. I have laughed out loud, shed some tears, and loved every moment.

5 comments about Bill W. and Mr. Wilson: The Legend and Life of A.A.'s Cofounder.

1. Pompous, pretentious and expensive sums up this book for me in just a few words. As a member of AA and having read a number of histories of AA and Bill W I was really looking forward to reading something which I thought might throw a new light and tell me something new. In reality it was, with very few exceptions, simply a repetition of the same old stuff and written in an irritating style. Alluding to a biker at Founders' Day on the second page Mr Raphael writes "The contrasting colors and textures emphasize the cut of the chaps, how they cradle his virilia, leaving him suggestively exposed." proved to be warning enough that this was not going to be a book I would enjoy or find readable. Irritating prose, questionable and unsupported ideas and theories, and with allusions to being a poor man's "Not God" this is most definitely a book I would not commend to anyone. And not worth the quite substantial price either!



2. Literary scholar and professor of English, John W. Crowley, writing under the pen name Matthew J. Raphael, renders a refreshing perspective on the life of Bill Wilson, founder-in-chief of Alcoholics Anonymous.
   
   With "Bill W. and Mr. Wilson" Crowley expanded his personal bibliography of works pertaining to alcoholism and drinking, including "The White Logic: Alcoholism and Gender in American Modernist Fiction" (1994), "Drunkard's Progress: Narratives of Addiction, Despair, and Recovery" (1999), and most recently, "Drunkard's Refuge: The Lessons of the New York State Inebriate Asylum" (2004).
   
   Like other recent Wilson biographers, Crowley critically examines key events in Wilson's story and flirts with exposé. Unfortunately, the criticism goes only as far as an adoring fan of Bill Wilson could permit. Crowley has to be careful not to lose his AA readership at the same time he has to preserve his own faith. It's a slack tightrope, but casual readers will be left believing he has made it to the other side safely. Others will see the length of the rope and draw their own conclusions.
   
   This book is an absolute must-read for anyone with an interest in the origins of Alcoholics Anonymous.



3. I was given this book as an early gift for my 5-year sobriety birthday. In April 1998, I took what I hope was my last drink. In April 2003, "God willin' and the creek don't rise," I will celebrate that 5-year milestone. I've read all the AA-approved treatments of our co-founders and their lives, and much of the non-conference-approved canon on the life of William G. Wilson. This book quickly became my favorite because of its honesty. Rather than painting Bill W. as God's special instrument, divinely appointed to save us drunks and led by God as if by puppet strings, this book paints an appropriately complex picture of a real human being -- a drunk like me. Raphael's take on Bill W. is based on tremendous research and a great deal of thought, as well as the wisdom of long-term, "good" sobriety. The writing is lucid and readable, though I did have to consult the dictionary twice. (I don't mind that, though -- being stretched a little. Good books should do that, don't you think?) For anyone interested in AA's legendary cofounder, I give this book a 5-star recommendation. It doesn't get better than this for thoughtful members of the recovery community.



4. I picked up this book after finishing Francis Hartigan's fine biography of Bill Wilson. I simply could not finish this book. "Raphael," the pseudonym of the author used in accordance with AA's 12th tradition, does a slip-shod job of reserching this subject, and mainly spends his time writing textual rifs based on his own interior monolog.

   This kind of writing seemed OK in the 70s, but now that Raphael and I have sobered up, it doesn't seem very interesting.




5. Only 3500 copies initially published. Sure to be a cult book like Igor Sikorsky's "Aa's Godparents : Three Early Influences on Alcoholics Anonymous and Its Foundation : Carl Jung, Emmet Fox, Jack Alexander" and copies will be hoarded and in great demand. The cover of the book is outstanding, from a painting, NIGHTHAWKS by Edward Hopper 1942, its compelling.

   The book, like its cover, also is compelling. The author has an easy to read but euridite and somewhat pedantic style that once I became used to it was very comfortable. Its been a long time since I encountered the terms termagant or fin de siecle.

   The facts and narratives are always interesting and I find myself agreeing and disagreeing with a number of statements and conclusions but I have to think them out. Items covered extremely well are existentialism, deflation in depth, desire for salvation, The Varities of Relegious Exerience, and the list goes on. That it has compelled me to think out some preconceived views is what I find to be the best characteristic of this book. Read the book and "Let your response happen."

   Factually it is nicely done. I admire and respect the author's endeavors.

   That said, there are several holes that I wish had been explored:

   The Hebrew and Greek concept of "Metanoia" is mentioned in a shallow passage that dismisses it as a purely "Protestant" concept. Father John Doe's, Ralph Pfau, writings would be a place to start. Repentance is more than confessing and saying you are sorry... (there are more than 4 steps!)

   Where o where is any reference to Emmet Fox? The Sermon on the Mount has been called the "Little Big Book" and there are several histories where it is noted that it was given out at meetings before there was a big book. The author did a wonderful job of tying linage back to the (Shoemaker, Buchman) Oxford Group, I found myself wishing he had done the same with Emmet Fox. (The Sermon on the Mount is still AA approved literature.)

   Several Long/Old/Seasoned Timers have mentioned that Bill, while writing the 164 pages at the mystical white kitchen table, constantly used and referenced the Bible, New Testament, and the book of James. I would have liked to have seen this aspect covered with the same ability the author showed with Nell Wing's viewpoint.

   Bill W has a pamphlet which is AA approved and published where he addresses an AMA medical conference. In it he simultaneously describes the program along three tracks - 1) Psychological, 2) Philosophical, and 3) Spiritual. I found myself hoping the author was going to cover this material. Alas, no such chapter.

   But it was a great book, I wanted more of the Author's reasoned, diligently researched and insightful conversational text. Even though I did not completely or necessarially agree, I really enjoyed the process of the reading experience. I truly enjoyed the book. It made me think, made me agree and disagree, informed me, and affected me. I really would like to have seen it be twice as long.

   In the stepping stones section where the author discribes Lois W. as saying that Bill W. did truly achieve humility was wonderfully led up to, framed, and presented. I felt, se finis, as if Bill was saying to me, out of this book, "True ambition is to walk humbly and to live usefully under God's Grace."

   Well Done! Bravo

No comments about Maína (Serie Gongoli).

5 comments about The Goldfish Went on Vacation: A Memoir of Loss (and Learning to Tell the Truth about It).

1. This book isn't very long at all..but I found myself taking my time reading it. The books author gives you (the reader) a lot of things to think about. I hope the author will write a second memoir to continue the conversation where she left off with this one.
   
   A memoir about the way children grieve AND the way adults grieve, a very insightful book.



2. In a support group for families dealing with a terminally ill member, a woman reveals that she had to flush her son's goldfish, but couldn't bear to tell him the truth about it, so her story because that "the goldfish went on vacation."
   
   For author Patty Dann and her preschool son Jake, as dad Willem dies of a brain tumor, "now, we are two."
   
   It's only natural that prolific essayist and writing workshop instructor Patty Dann would publish a book on the topic of loss when she was widowed after less than a decade of marriage. The author observes that with a 3-year-old just out of a stroller, and a husband with a degenerative brain tumor, she may soon be pushing two children around. The short, delicate chapters are peppered with poignant insights and frank discussions about death, but the worth as a whole strives too hard to be "that perfect pocket book for giving to a friend coping with loss."
   
   I personally looked for just such a book when my best friend gave birth to a baby girl doctors predicted would live less than three years. I might have been tempted by this title had it been out, but with four years of maturity (and a still relatively stable, growing four-year-old child for my best friend), I would never select such an unremarkable, silly book to attempt to comfort a friend.
   
   Dann does deal with a unique aspect of loss--she has a year to adjust to becoming a widow and a single parent, as she watches her husband lose his mental and physical faculties. Her ideas, like having family members write letters to her son to be opened in a decade, on his thirteenth birthday, help remind the reader how much we need to celebrate and cherish those around us every day. As a whole, though, the essays add up to little more than a cute book with a fish on the cover. For hard-hitting personal soul-searching about the death of a spouse and father, I would recommend Joan Didion's The Year of Magical Thinking.



3. Excellent read. Couldn't put it down. Subject close to my heart. In reading this book, at times you felt what the author was feeling. Again, it was an excellent book. I may even read it again to see if I missed anything.



4. When I purchased this book I assumed it would be more telling about how her husband's disease affected their lives, how he handled things, along with doctors diagnosis, thoughts and suggestions. This book was more about the wife and her past memories of her life. I didn't care for it.



5. this is a wonderful book which I enjoyed reading. The chapters were very short and the book was so easy to read.
   You forget the book is true and sometimes you laugh and sometimes you cry.

5 comments about I Hope You Have a Good Life: A True Story of Love, Loss and Redemption.

1. When I first picked up this book, I was a little unsure about it. I am here to tell you that this book is worth reading. It shows a family dealing not only with cancer, but living with past lapses in judgment that sometimes come back in the middle of the night to haunt them.
   It made me realize how short life is, and that we should all take a little more time and enjoy the people who are in our lives. We never know when something could happen to them.



2. This is simply one of the finest memoirs I've read in years; and an important book on serious topics - marriage, divorce, adoption, alcohol, and illness. Armstrong has a lot of wisdom to impart, and does so in a simple yet affecting style that will often break your heart.
   Do not miss this book...it's a work of art.



3. I just read All That Really Matters the UK version of I Hope You Have A Good Life. What a wonderful book! I would definately give more than 5 stars if I could. The book is a true story of a woman who gave up her baby girl years ago. Well she gets married, to who else, Campbell Armstrong an aspiring writer, and has kids, 3 boys, of her own. After they move to Phoenix, they end up getting divorced and Campbell moves back to Ireland where they are originally from, while Eileen stays with the boys in Phoenix. Years later Eileen finds out she has cancer. Across the world, a woman named Barbara also finds out she has cancer. She has been looking for her real mother for a long time. When she finally finds her mother and they both discover they both have cancer, the illness doesn't matter anymore because they have found each other. This is a story of loves lost and found along with lifes ups and downs. What a magnificent story. I have also read Concert of Ghosts by Campbell Armstrong. Also a descriptive book!!!



4. I want to thank the author for following his ambitions, listening to his heart and sharing his writings with us. As we all know, there are, at times, difficult decisions to be made in life. When our choices seem both right and wrong simultaneously, the measure of our worth can possibly be revealed. This is a true story, a memoir, of deep human connections. Make a point of reading this one. You will be thanking Campbell Armstrong, also.



5. I thank the author. As we all know, there are, at times, difficult decisions to be made in life. When our choices seem both right and wrong simultaneously, the measure of our worth can possibly be revealed. This is a true story, a memoir, of deep human connections. Make a point of reading this one. Then you, too, will be thanking Campbell Armstrong, also for his wonderfully emotionally uplifting writings.

1 comments about My Bilateral Knee Replacement: A Personal Story.

1. Being into my 7th month of recovery from bilateral knee replacement I found this book ridiculous and extremely negative - not at all encouraging. The information comes across as official and usual, but every patient is different. My experience, which I thought out thorougly before making a decison, has been excellent - if I have to do this again, I will. It is a challenging recovery and there is pain, but there are so many good meds out there to help with pain managemnt these days - and it is a pain that is going to come to an end. I stood the morning after my surgery, walked 4 days later, did stairs 10 days out from the surgery and returned to my desk job 60 days later. Recovery is hard work - daily work for a long time. Today I rode my exercise bike for 30 minutes! I have been on my feet nonstop for over 2 hours at a time. I feel better than I have in years. Am I pain free ?- not yet. It takes the muscles, tendons , and ligaments a long time to forgive their trauma. But talk with your doctors, talk with rehab people - ask all the questions before hand - but you can get well. Bilateral knee replacement does not have to be the worst experience of your life!

1 comments about For the Love of Teddi: The Story Behind Camp Good Days and Special Times<br> The 2001 Edition.

1. Do not pick up this book if you are not prepared to weap...and be inspired as well. One cannot help but be moved by the story of a young girl (Teddi) who faces cancer with the strength and dignity rarely seen in adults--much less children. This book is wonderfully written and I was left wondering how I could feel so sad for the plight of this girl and so inspired at the same time. A must read.