Things the Grandchildren Should Know by Mark Oliver Everett
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Book Reviews of Things the Grandchildren Should Know
Book Review: Rock Music! Death! Crazy People! Love!
Summary: 5 Stars
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So far in my life there have been few books that have actually brought me to tears but this is one of these books. In general the tears were brought on because of the content of course and just how real and vulnerable is on paper. The truth about why I feel so attached to this book is because he does a great job of giving background on a lot of his amazing songs he has written over the years. There are so many songs that the Eels perform that I listen to over and over again. The Eels are one band that I listen to when I am happy, sad, want to have fun or need to just chill out and relax. At the risk of sounding really deep, E and the Eels have got me through some tough times in my life.
The minute I received the book in the mail it felt like Christamas and I couldn't put it down.
More here: [...]
Book Review: Read it in one sitting
Summary: 5 Stars
I've been an Eels fan for several years. I was excited to see this book come out and when I was able to finally get my hands on it I devoured it in one sitting.
Mark Everett's writing is honest and has an edge to it. A paragraph will be rolling nicely along and all of a sudden he throw you a left curve. He looks at things most of us would look at in horror and he gives it a humorous edge.
A wonderful book. Even if your not an Eels fan.
Book Review: Read This Book
Summary: 5 Stars
Many worlds, many sorrows, many laughs. This book is a joy to read, you won't put it down and, like me, you will look forward to the sequel, where the dreams of children and 3 legged deer come true.
I hope you are working on making those grandchildren, ME.
We want to know them.
Book Review: Amateurish
Summary: 2 Stars
This is what happens when someone who's never been a reader, never studied literature or writing, up and decides he should write a book for the rest of us to read. Despite "getting off an occasional one liner" (as another reviewer wrote) the writing is mostly amateurish, full of empty and downright corny clichés, never penetrating or insightful, and his tone reeks of that combination of self-pity and self-importance common to inexperienced writers.
A guy like Bob Dylan can write a decent memoir because he's extremely well read and a first-rate poet. Keith Richards wrote a great memoir because he's also well-read and had a decent writer help him. This book will appeal to Eels fans who aren't interested in literary quality or great story telling, but I can't see why anyone else would bother. Everett's stories and his way of telling them are strictly ho-hum. Even his story of a jet plane crashing into his neighborhood is told in such a mundane way as to make it seem rather unremarkable. I give it two stars only because I didn't finish it.
For a spectacular example of a memoir about loss by someone who really knows how to write, read Dave Eggers' A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius.