Scan barcode
carrieprice78's review
1.0
I haven't read it all, but I did page through it and read many parts of it. This book gave me the best laugh I've had in a long, long time. There is a laughably bad love scene. I read parts of it to my friend and we had tears streaming down our faces from laughing so hard. A quote: "Usually, we made love at my place in Manhattan, but I had stayed in Williamsburg with Tilla because we had come from a family birthday party and were scheduled to go to brunch in Manhattan with Mariah and one of her ex-husbands who had turned out to be a set-designer friend of Tilla's." A longer scene set-up will not be had. And, later: "...I watched his eyes open and shut, open and shut with his thrusts..." This scene was horrendously bad, but just about every sentence I read had the same pretentious, overly-indulgent self-awareness. It gets tedious and annoying. I would not read this book in its entirety.
Merged review:
I haven't read it all, but I did page through it and read many parts of it. This book gave me the best laugh I've had in a long, long time. There is a laughably bad love scene. I read parts of it to my friend and we had tears streaming down our faces from laughing so hard. A quote: "Usually, we made love at my place in Manhattan, but I had stayed in Williamsburg with Tilla because we had come from a family birthday party and were scheduled to go to brunch in Manhattan with Mariah and one of her ex-husbands who had turned out to be a set-designer friend of Tilla's." A longer scene set-up will not be had. And, later: "...I watched his eyes open and shut, open and shut with his thrusts..." This scene was horrendously bad, but just about every sentence I read had the same pretentious, overly-indulgent self-awareness. It gets tedious and annoying. I would not read this book in its entirety.
Merged review:
I haven't read it all, but I did page through it and read many parts of it. This book gave me the best laugh I've had in a long, long time. There is a laughably bad love scene. I read parts of it to my friend and we had tears streaming down our faces from laughing so hard. A quote: "Usually, we made love at my place in Manhattan, but I had stayed in Williamsburg with Tilla because we had come from a family birthday party and were scheduled to go to brunch in Manhattan with Mariah and one of her ex-husbands who had turned out to be a set-designer friend of Tilla's." A longer scene set-up will not be had. And, later: "...I watched his eyes open and shut, open and shut with his thrusts..." This scene was horrendously bad, but just about every sentence I read had the same pretentious, overly-indulgent self-awareness. It gets tedious and annoying. I would not read this book in its entirety.
misfitmoxie's review
1.0
Just don't think I'll ever get through this. You can take naps between the points.
.......
So I'm taking this off the languishing list, because that implies I might pick it up again. Similarly, putting it on the to-read list implies I want to read it. So, since I did read over half of it, I'm saying read. But I didn't. And I won't.
.......
So I'm taking this off the languishing list, because that implies I might pick it up again. Similarly, putting it on the to-read list implies I want to read it. So, since I did read over half of it, I'm saying read. But I didn't. And I won't.
thndrkat's review
5.0
A truly wonderful memoir. Detailed, honest, and exhaustive. Peacock turns her precise poet's sensibility on her own life in a painstaking yet ultimately satisfying exercise in self-awareness. Her account of her evolution as an artist, and the process of turning life's chaos into precise packages of poetry, is particularly gratifying and beautiful.
papernapkin's review
3.0
Molly Peacock (creator of the Poetry in Motion program in NYC, which places poem placards in public transit vehicles) writes about her decision to be child-free. Since she tells us how that decision was informed, the book is also a patchwork memoir recounting her childhood, which is the most interesting part of the book. I was amazed, as I always am, that people who choose not to have children encounter so much resistance. Almost as if the people she tells have to go through the 5 stages of grief for a child never conceived. Anyway, it's a pretty good read.
bitterindigo's review
3.0
What I learned from this book is that sometimes I'm a real bitch. I can't think of any other reason why it took me so long to warm up to Molly Peacock. I still think women that decide not to have children assume too easily that those of us who do have children aren't the least bit conflicted about it -- as if they're the only ones who have to think about whether their lives are fulfilling or not. But cripes, she had a hellish childhood and her family would put anyone off procreating, wihtout a whole lot of soul-searching if at all. This is an honest, well-written memoir, and I completely respect her decision, and her talent.
More...