SLOPPY - Rax King


 I've never heard of Rax King or read anything by her prior to this, but I do enjoy essays and yes, the quote from The Washington Post on the cover of the book "Bettie Page meets Carrie Bradshaw" helped to sell me on this.

I was incredibly impressed very early on with the first few essays. I connected with Rax as she wrote about school:

I desperately wanted to pay attention to whatever my teachers were saying about, I don't know, the Spanish-American War probably. (Anytime you can't remember what your teachers were blathering on about, it was the Spanish-American War. Doesn't it just sound like the kind of lesson you zoned out for?) The ADHD lad must have desperately wanted to pay attention, too. He acted out and I caved in.

And the 'helpful' mentors who think you're just not organized and need a to-do list:

"...Get a task, write it down, do a task, cross it off. All day, every day."
I squinted at his list. It was evening, and still the only one task crossed off: Make a to-do list. ... "Yeah, well. I'm not having such a good day myself."

Even when Rax writes about her work dancing (stripping) and how she wasn't particularly good at it, except for the one time ("It was a complete accident, as are most instances of me being good at my job."), I could identify - not as a dancer or stripper, but as someone who never feels as though they fit in with their job, even if they are 'successful.'

Unlike Rax, who grew up in what we might call a troubled family ("My family is drunks the way other families are Teamsters or actors.") and so my identifying with Ms King waned as I got deeper into the collection of essays. They were still well written and clearly Rax King was shedding some uncomfortable parts of her past as she was working to identify why she is the person she is today.

But I definitely got left behind when she talked about her drug use. I'm not that person and I have difficulty understanding understanding it myself. Anything beyond college experimentation is foreign to me.

Overall, as stated, I'm really impressed. I don't find a lot of essayists that I enjoy (I'm an outlier - I am not a fan of David Sedaris or Augusten Burroughs) but I will definitely look forward to reading more by Rax King. I think she has some very valuable things to say and she says them very well.

This book contains the following:

Sloppy
Proud Alcohlic Stock
Shoplifting from Brandy Melville
Pants on Fire
The Temple of Feminine Perfection
Anger Management
Ten Items
Your Pet Is Dying: An Online Life
Mr. Girl Power
Front of House
Bad Friend
Up from Sloth
Some Notes Towards a Theory of an Old Dad
Hey Big Spender
Commitment Issues
Domesticating the Wolf of Wall Street

Looking for a good book? Sloppy, by Rax King, is a delectable collection of essays. Hard hitting, personal drama calmly looked at with a discerning eye.

I received a digital copy of this book from the publisher, through Netgalley, in exchange for an honest review.

4-1/2 stars

* * * * * *

Sloppy: Or: Doing It All Wrong

author: Rax King

publisher: Vintage

ISBN: 9780593688458

paperback, 272 pages

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

KIM STANLEY ROBINSON: APPRENTICESHIPS IN NARRATIVE - Andrew Rowcroft

Image
I am a sucker for anything by or about Kim Stanley Robinson. Since I first read The Gold Coast sometime in the late 1980's or early 90's; I haven't missed any of his books since. So, when I see a book about Robinson, or examining his work, I'm all in. What I don't like, is reading a research paper, a university-style thesis, posing as a book. In classic research paper tradition, we begin with an introduction that tells us what we are going to read. Chapter by chapter, taking up nearly 15% of the book's pages, author Andrew Rowcroft tells us what we're going to read in. In detail. With 114 endnotes. There are six chapters .... well, five chapters and a coda ... dealing with different aspects of Robinson's work. But first ... what does "Apprenticeships in Narrative" even mean? In his introduction, Rowcroft notes: "This book argues that one of the most striking aspects of Robinson’s fiction is his concern with literary apprenticeship." ...
Read more

STAR TREK: YEAR FOUR - THE ENTERPRISE EXPERIMENT - graphic novel

Image
I am one of those faithful Star Trek fans who will gladly read stories (stories, novels, graphic novels) featuring the original Star Trek cast/crew.  When you add in an author such as D.C. Fontana, who wrote for the original series, and the excitement level for a book like this is high. The book reads like a classic Trek episode. Here, while the Enterprise is testing a new cloaking device (having stolen such a device from a Romulan ship) Kirk and Spock find themselves boarding the ship from a shuttlecraft  only to discover that they are out of 'phase' with the rest of the ship's crew. Only Lt. Arex is slightly visible to Kirk and Spock (due to some technical, fortuitous accident). It is during this time that the Romulans arrive, with Ambassador Sarek, and an old-fashioned pistol (phaser pistol) fight may ensue in the corridors. I will almost always have fun reading new adventures from my favorite starship crew, and I definitely enjoyed this, but scribe Fontana does some...
Read more

LAP DANCE LUST - Rachel Kramer Bussel

Image
WARNING: THIS BOOK AND REVIEW CONTAIN WORDS AND THEMES OF A SEXUAL NATURE I debated, a LOT, over whether or not I would even publicly post a review of this book. I mean, it's kind of embarrassing to admit to reading erotica. And yet the genre is one of the best selling subjects these days (thanks, in part, I'd guess, due to the anonymity that digital books afford) so why not read it (and, to be very honest, I was equally embarrassed to admit to reading Louis L'Amour westerns the first time I posted one of those reviews). I am not familiar with author Rachel Kramer Bussel so I'll trust Goodreads' quote that she is "one of the biggest names in the literary world of erotica." With nearly 200 works attributed to her name (many as editor) she's certainly got some experience with the genre. Overall I was impressed with the quality of the writing.  I have to admit to going into this expecting some really cheesy writing with the sole goal of getting the reader...
Read more