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Smart, sexy, passionate, brash, and gritty. At times hilarious, at times tender. Any fan of Addonizio’s poetry and fiction will love this memoir, too — from the joys and frustrations of a writing life to the love and heartbreak of just living. It’s all here in this mesmerizing essay collection. You won’t want to put it down.
Kim Addonizio has quickly become one of my favorite writers. Whether it be memoir, poetry, or a book on craft she is witty, snarky and wonderful to read.
Only my third 5 star review, after Jonathen Franzen's The Corrections, and Ulysses, of course.
The wonderful right-here-now voice of this noted poet and poetry teacher in a series of short stories (memoir stories e.g. about her life). She is blunt, tells it all, a wonderful writer who can communicate so much more. I couldn't get enough and wanted the book to go on and on. And there is a dollop of good old Bukowski in her writing.....
I enjoyed this book of essays from the life of a contemporary poet. I've heard Kim Addonizio read, and play harmonica, but have not read much of her work. I admire her honesty, sense of humor, and how she portrays everyday life: visiting her mother in the nursing home, searching for love, the struggles of a poet to write, coming up with a keynote address, and the indignities writers are faced with on a regular basis. She writes, "I would struggle to feel the deep joy in the mystery of change, no...
So many truths about writing and life and loneliness, falling in and out of love. "Socrates said the unexamined life is not worth living, but an article in the newspaper explained that people who seldom examine their lives are happier. Realize that most writers live overexamined lives.""Still, here's how I've found writing sometimes works: if you are madly avoiding one genre, your imagination may suddenly kick in elsewhere.""This is another thing happiness does: convinces you that your life is a...
Compulsively read this over a day and a half--really enjoyed. It is poetic and volatile and beautiful at once, with a great weaving of discussion regarding an author's inner life and the sometimes ridiculous expectations of the publishing and academic worlds. <3
In this memoir, poet Kim Addonizio offers glimpses of her upbringing, her writing work, her struggles, and her demons, along with a generous taste of her unique, wonderfully accessible writing talent. She draws the title "Bukowski in a Sundress" from a shallow comparison a National Book Award judge once made, based on the fact that Addonizio's work also includes a fair amount of sex and booze, just like Bukowski's However, she gets a pretty funny essay out of it--one of my favorites in this coll...
I've been a fan of Addonizio's poetry ever since college. It led me to reading her lovely novels and to teaching her poems to my creative students (they always go over well). This book is definitely a good read for an Addonizio fan. It has the same wit, sharpness, and depth as her other works. She works particularly well in the personal essay form. Overall though, the use of the how-to or list form with second person got a bit redundant (so maybe this is a 3.5 review). But I was certainly charme...
A fine read with occasionally exceptional lines such as - "You drive out River Road, past the mansions stranded on enormous green lawns, stoned and eating pastries stuffed with red jelly, laughing like battery-powered witch puppets."
How happy I am that this book exists and I can read it whenever I need it - and this time around, I desperately needed it. Thank heaven for Kim.
This memoir told in a collection of essays is raw, honest, funny, smart and tightly written. I loved it and can say that I am in awe, jealous and aspiring to be half the writer this woman is.
I can't begin to say how happy this memoir made me! I picked it up from piles of books I kept starting and stopping and this one was not only a joy to read, but I was drinking beer and moved to wine, which is never a good idea, but I felt compelled by that kickass cover! Not only is this beauty right on the mark on writing and conferences, but I had just finished cleaning my kitty litter box and was thinking of what I could do next when mid-sentence in a story. I am thankful that Addonizio is he...
Sharply written, revealing, sometimes to the point of embarrassment, and yet the author's sharing of the life of an active writer is useful and strong.
Inspiring, demoralizing, infuriating, heart-wrenchingly human.
Kim Addonizio grabs your sleeve and tugs you with brutal passion through her raw and vicious life. With unflinching sincerity, we soar through vignettes of unforgiving, brutal beauty wrapped in humorous observation and savage honesty. Kim has a knack of undressing sentimentality and revealing the naked ache of poignancy underneath. This stunning little slice of inspection, retrospection and deconstruction bites you, nibbles you, spits you out, and begs you to mourn and love and fail and triumph
“I am deliriously happy, and I am hurting everyone.”“I like to have a martini,Two at the very most.After three I'm under the table,after four I'm under my host.”--Dorothy ParkerI was hoping for a more coherent memoir, but got this still honest and painful and moving and hilarious and exasperating collection of essays by the amazing poet Addonizio. Titles include “How to Succeed in Po Biz,” “How to Stop Drinking so Much,” “Pants on Fire,” “All Manner of Obscene Things,” and “How to be a Dirty, Di...
I've always known Addonizio as a poet. As one of my favorites. The poem that got me hooked was the first--"First Poem for You," a modern sonnet that was sexy and full of darkness and wonder. I remember thinking--holy shit, poetry can be like this? I was nineteen, I found it in a Poetry anthology for my first-ever Poetry class in college (and definitely not the last...)Indeed. So I've always known Kim Addonizio as a poet--Tell Me, What is This Thing Called Love, Lucifer at the Starlite. And I've
I’m a big fan of Kim Addonizio’s poetry, so I was very excited to read this memoir-in-essays. I scoffed at the back-cover blurb—a cross between Mary Karr and Amy Schumer? Give me break, marketers will say anything these days—and dove in. And then was immediately brought up short by the tone of this. The fact is, I was expecting these essays to fall more on the Mary Karr side of things, and instead they really did fall more on the Amy Schumer side: very light, with lots of talk of drinking, men,
This book was my introduction to Kim Addonizio. I mistakenly thought this was a poetry book, but no matter, I’ve now decided she’s someone I want to read a lot more of. In this book of personal essays, I particularly liked her poignant thoughts on caring for an elderly parent, offerings on the writing life, and confessions of falling for a younger man. She holds nothing back. I may have found a new favorite author.