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Between Panic and Desire (American Lives)by Dinty W Moore
Synopses & ReviewsPublisher Comments:“Insouciant” and “irreverent” are the sort of words that come up in reviews of Dinty W. Moores booksand, invariably, “hilarious.” Between Panic and Desire, named after two towns in Pennsylvania, finds Moore at the top of his astutely funny form. A book that could be named after one of its chapters, “A Post-Nixon, Post-panic, Post-modern, Post-mortem,” this collection is an unconventional memoir of one man and his culture, which also happens to be our own. Blending narrative and quizzes, memory and numerology, and imagined interviews and conversations with dead presidents on TV, the book dizzily documents the disorienting experience of growing up in a postmodern world. Here we see how the major events in the authors early lifethe Kennedy assassination, Nixons resignation, watching Father Knows Best, and dropping acid atop the World Trade Center, to name a fewshaped the way he sees events both global and personal today. More to the point, we see how these events shaped, and possibly even distorted, todays world for all of us who spent our formative years in the 50s, 60s, and 70s. A curious meditation on family and bereavement, longing and fear, self-loathing and desire, Between Panic and Desire unfolds in kaleidoscopic formsa coroners report, a TV movie script, a Zen koanaptly reflecting the emergence of a fractured virtual America. Review:"In this 'unconventional, nonsequential, generational autobiography, AKA cultural memoir,' Moore, a professor of English at Ohio University, describes growing up as a child of the 1950s. 'Panic' characterized his youth, as he watched 'the symbols of safety and security' on television — Leave It to Beaver, Father Knows Best — while his real world fell apart. His mother had left his often-inebriated father, but couldn't handle raising the children herself. 'Paranoia' was the theme of his teen years, as JFK and King were assassinated; the draft and the Vietnam War drove young men to extremes; and characters like Charlie Manson, Squeaky Fromme, Mark David Chapman and John Hinckley Jr. all took aim at public figures. Moore's own paranoia was only heightened by using LSD and smoking dope while tooling around in his VW Beetle. Miraculously, 'desire began to overtake panic'; he discovered a passion for writing, which has focused him ever since. Moore lays all this out in a series of free-form, almost playful essays; only there's something serious here, too, as he realizes our history seems to repeat itself: the Patriot Act sounds like 1984 and Iraq feels like Vietnam all over again. In the end, Moore (The Accidental Buddhist) takes readers on a quirky, entertaining joyride." Publishers Weekly (Copyright Reed Business Information, Inc.) Review:"The writing is frequently very funny; insightful, too, especially Moore's belief that humans are generally delusional when it comes to their expectations vs. what is realistically possible. . . . The narrative has its poignant moments, particularly in Moore's recollections of his father. And despite his fractured take on the world, his message is essentially hopeful. Moore, it seems, is moving on."-Robert Kelly, Library Journal Review:"[A] quirky, entertaining joyride."-Publishers Weekly Review:"Dinty W. Moores prose is crisp and clean, his insights sparkle with biting clarity and magnetic charm. This is an unusual, joyful and compelling memoir."-Lee Gutkind, author of Almost Human: Making Robots Think and editor of Creative Nonfiction Review:"This is a refreshing and invigorating book, taking the predictable memoir form in new directions-playfully, sincerely, and intelligently. This is a terrific book."-Bret Lott, author of Jewel Review:"Moore forges a brisk, incisive, funny, sometimes silly, yet stealthily affecting memoir in essays and skits, a `generational autobiography,' and good candid guy stuff. . . . Each anecdote, piece of pop-culture trivia, and frankly confessed panic and desire yields a chunk of irony and a sliver of wisdom."-Donna Seaman, Booklist Review:"Dinty W. Moores prose is crisp and clean, his insights sparkle with biting clarity and magnetic charm. This is an unusual, joyful and compelling memoir."-Lee Gutkind, author of Almost Human: Making Robots Think and editor of Creative Nonfiction (Lee Gutkind, Jul 18 2007 )Review:"In intertwined, wildly inventive essays . . . Moore conjures up his, and our, past from a grab-bag of elements. . . . He doesn't work through this crazy salad so much as play with it, using individual motifs as shiny mosaic stones to arrange in funny, intriguing shapes."-The Athens NEWS About the AuthorDinty W. Moore is a professor of English at Ohio University and the author of several books, including The Truth of the Matter: Art and Craft in Creative Nonfiction and The Accidental Buddhist: Mindfulness, Enlightenment, and Sitting Still What Our Readers Are SayingBe the first to add a comment for a chance to win!Product Details
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