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“Honest, original and absolutely remarkable.”—NPR (Best Books of the Year)
When Liz Phair shook things up with her musical debut, Exile in Guyville—making her as much a cultural figure as a feminist pioneer and rock star—her raw candor, uncompromising authenticity, and deft storytelling inspired a legion of critics, songwriters, musicians, and fans alike. Now, like a Gen X Patti Smith, Liz Phair reflects on the path she has taken in these piercing essays that reveal the indelible memories that have stayed with her.
For Phair, horror is in the eye of the beholder—in the often unrecognized universal experiences of daily pain, guilt, and fear that make up our humanity. Illuminating despair with hope and consolation, tempering it all with her signature wit, Horror Stories is immersive, taking readers inside the most intimate junctures of Phair’s life, from facing her own bad behavior and the repercussions of betraying her fundamental values, to watching her beloved grandmother inevitably fade, to undergoing the beauty of childbirth while being hit up for an autograph by the anesthesiologist.
Horror Stories is a literary accomplishment that reads like the confessions of a friend. It gathers up all of our isolated shames and draws them out into the light, uniting us in our shared imperfection, our uncertainty and our cowardice, smashing the stigma of not being in control. But most importantly, the uncompromising precision and candor of Horror Stories transforms these deeply personal experiences into tales about each and every one of us.
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Creators
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Publisher
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Release date
October 8, 2019 -
Formats
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Kindle Book
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OverDrive Read
- ISBN: 9780525511991
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EPUB ebook
- ISBN: 9780525511991
- File size: 19102 KB
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Languages
- English
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Reviews
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Starred review from October 14, 2019
In a debut memoir as candid as her music, Phair eschews themes of typical rock-and-roll tell-all for a more introspective look at events in her life. Phair, who released her debut album Exile in Guyville 1993, made her name with bluntly honest and sometimes sexually explicit lyrics focused on desire, independence, and relationships. She does the same her, moving nonlinearly through her life and focusing on “the small indignities we all suffer daily,” where horror is found “in brief interactions that are as cumulatively powerful as the splashy heart-stoppers, because that’s where we live most of our lives.” Nine months pregnant, she became self-conscious as she was examined by her ob-gyn, recalling her first visit with a male pediatrician who erroneously told her that “she was very tight. It may be difficult for her to have sex.” Her stories include realizing that a boyfriend is a “calculatingly dishonest” cheat, her own infidelity during her first marriage, getting lost in a blinding New York City snowstorm late at night, and dealing with the frightening fallout of a street fight in Shanghai that she started. Phair admits that she can still make “colossal errors in judgement,” but her empathy for people’s “private struggles” shines throughout: “The stranger next to you is so much more like you than you think.” This powerful debut will delight Phair’s many fans. -
January 10, 2020
Indie-rock darling Phair's unconventional memoir details the moments that have haunted her, the ones that keep her up at night, the ones in which she acted against her best instincts, or reacted in a way that left her feeling ashamed or embarrassed. She writes that "examining the weaker moments in our lives makes us stronger," which is her aim here. Phair describes not helping a young woman passed out in a bathroom at a party and not speaking up when she was uncomfortable at photo shoots, as well as choices that doomed her marriage. She points out that it's difficult to share these kinds of truths and that doing so leaves us vulnerable to judgment and rejection, but that ultimately it reveals who we are more completely and leads to more fulfilling relationships.
VERDICT Fans of the author and those who enjoyed Patti Smith's memoirs will relish this book.--Stephanie Klose, Library Journal
Copyright 2020 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
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