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Title details for Horror Stories by Liz Phair - Wait list

Horror Stories

A Memoir

by Liz Phair
Liz Phair
Audiobook
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0 of 1 copy available
Wait time: About 4 weeks
The two-time Grammy-nominated singer-songwriter behind the groundbreaking album Exile in Guyville traces her life and career in a genre-bending memoir in stories about the pivotal moments that haunt her.
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 listeners 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.
Musical interludes composed and performed by Liz Phair
Advance praise for Horror Stories
“Liz Phair’s songwriting has always had the rare quality of being short-story-like. Damn good short stories, too. Horror Stories has that unique Liz Phair ability to make you look at something you’d rather not, but once you do you’re glad you did—like any form of honest art.  This is why Liz Phair still is, and always will be, a threat.”—Ben Folds

  • Creators

  • Publisher

  • Release date

    October 8, 2019

  • Formats

    • OverDrive Listen audiobook

      • ISBN: 9780593147399
      • File size: 267923 KB
      • Duration: 09:18:10

  • Languages

    • English

  • Reviews

    • AudioFile Magazine
      A born storyteller, singer-songwriter Liz Phair exchanges guitar strumming for typing with this memoir--which she also narrates. It's a collection of stories told in no particular order, highlighting the impact of small moments. Phair describes the wound it is to be human, to have memories and, consequently, regret, guilt, and love. The stories are mostly relatable, but the vivid imagery she uses is what will pierce listeners to their core. Phair lets her impeccable writing shine in a steady voice that is almost flat at times. Her tone suggests that the passage of time allows her to share vulnerable moments. For a childhood story, Phair instills emotion into her delivery with a shriek and terrified cry for help. Interludes of Phair's music between chapters round out this dynamic listening experience. A.L.C. © AudioFile 2020, Portland, Maine
    • Publisher's Weekly

      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.

Formats

  • OverDrive Listen audiobook

subjects

Languages

  • English

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