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Bezig met laden... The Double Life Is Twice as Good: Essays and Fictiondoor Jonathan Ames
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Amid the continuing skirmish over truthfulness in memoir, Ames poses the inverse question of an author’s responsibility to readers: just because it is true, should it be published? Much of his collection rests on the hope that readers will not ask this question, or that they will be too battered into sympathetic submission by Ames’s mix of self-absorption and self-doubt to answer it honestly.
Wildly original novelist, essayist, and performance artist Jonathan Ames delivers a hilarious, risqué, and loveable selection of articles, essays, and fiction, including several previously unpublished pieces. In The Double Life Is Twice as Good, fans will be treated to a deft and charming compilation of Ames's journalism, personal essays, and short fiction. Featuring illuminating profiles of Marilyn Manson and Lenny Kravitz, his adventures at a goth festival in the Midwest, a story written for Esquire on a napkin, as well as a comic strip collaboration with graphic artist Nick Bertozzi, Ames's unique style and personality-driven humor shines throughout this wickedly funny collection. Also included is the short story, "Bored to Death," a Raymond Chandler-esque tale about a struggling writer-turned-detective who becomes quickly embroiled in the search for a missing college co-ed, which inspired the HBO series of the same name. Described by The Portland Oregonian as "an edgier David Sedaris," Ames will have you hooked with this brilliant collection. Geen bibliotheekbeschrijvingen gevonden. |
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Google Books — Bezig met laden... GenresDewey Decimale Classificatie (DDC)818.5409Literature English (North America) Authors, American and American miscellany 20th Century 1945-1999LC-classificatieWaarderingGemiddelde:
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Sadly, for the most part, this collection left me wishing there was more to it. Bored-to-Death-the-short-story is almost nothing like Bored-to-Death-the-TV-show. You can recognize traces of the pilot episode, but it is played like a Raymond Chandler novel and played extremely straight. After that, it breaks down into Journalism, Personal Essays, and Short Stories.
Journalism is easily the best section of the three, with Ames taking weird, wonderful trips to a Goth convention, the US Open, the Meatpacking District of New York City, and hanging out with Marilyn Manson and Lenny Kravitz. Personal Essays is the weakest, with some occasional amusing bits, but it's mostly painfully recycled content from other places. (I believe I mentioned this in my review for William Gibson's Distrust That Particular Flavor but it bears repeating: if I want to read the foreword for another book, I would be reading that book. Short Stories has some good pieces in it, but they mostly seem like thinly fictionalized Personal Essays (i.e. stories about people that Ames has slept with).
All in all, I should probably be rating this book lower, but I'm willing to give it the third star based on the strength of the Journalism section alone. I'm not sure if I'd grab this off the shelf at City Lights again, but if it turned up in a used-book bin, I would recommend giving it at least a shot if you're not familiar with Ames. ( )