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Between Panic and Desire (American Lives)
by Dinty W Moore
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About This Book
ISBN13: 9780803211490 
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Only 1 left in stock at $17.50!
(Robert Kelly, Library Journal, Mar 1 2008 ) (Susan Salter Reynolds, Los Angeles Times) (Donna Seaman, Booklist, Mar 15 2008 )
Synopses & Reviews
Publisher Comments:
“Insouciant” and “irreverent” are the sort of words that come up in reviews of Dinty W. Moore’s books—and, 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 author’s early life—the Kennedy assassination, Nixon’s resignation, watching Father Knows Best, and dropping acid atop the World Trade Center, to name a few—shaped the way he sees events both global and personal today. More to the point, we see how these events shaped, and possibly even distorted, today’s 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 forms—a coroner’s report, a TV movie script, a Zen koan—aptly 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:
"Hear that? That is the sweet sonic boom of the Baby Boom barrier being broken by this elegant flight of essays launched from the steely hand of Captain Dinty W. Moore in his remarkable memoir Between Panic and Desire. Impossible, they said, to reveal this precisely that sense of time, place, and even space. Listen: Read, read, read. Words away! That's it. Exactly. Like that."-Michael Martone, author of Michael Martone: Fictions
(Michael Martone, Jul 18 2007 )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
(Bret Lott, Jul 18 2007 )Review:
"[A] quirky, entertaining joyride."-Publishers Weekly
(Publishers Weekly)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:
"Between Panic and Desire is more autopsy than memoir-a strange new hybrid. Its a fantasy of letting go of the things that have haunted Moore his entire life. These things do, in fact, float off the pages."-Los Angeles Times
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 )About the Author
Dinty 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
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Product Details
- ISBN:
- 9780803211490
- Author:
- Publisher:
- University of Nebraska Press
- Author:
- Subject:
- BIO026000
- Subject:
- Popular Culture
- Subject:
- History
- Subject:
- United States - 20th Century
- Subject:
- Personal Memoirs
- Subject:
- Educators
- Subject:
- Essays
- Series:
- American Lives
- Publication Date:
- March 2008
- Binding:
- Hardcover
- Language:
- English
- Illustrations:
- Y
- Pages:
- 140
- Dimensions:
- 8.76x6.02x.70 in. .76 lbs.
