Thoughts by Kayla Rae Whitaker, Random House 2016, 372 pages
MOTIVATION for READING: Have I got a story to tell! Well, ok. It’s exciting to me, so… Bear with me.
Last December, I responded to a tweet suggesting that if you wanted a book recommendation, just respond with the last thing you ate and what you were wearing.
Here’s the exchange:
and she responded with this:
So I put it on my tbr. (I must have known it was on the long list for TOB. right?)
THEN!!! It made the short list for the TOB. Oh YEA.
WHAT’s it ABOUT: Well, this part aint so easy.
I’ve mentioned that it involves creative arts, dysfunctional families and the impact of such on friendships and partnerships – both love and work, then that it features lots of drug use into adulthood?
Sharon Kisses, who considers herself heterosexual, meets Mel Vaughn, a rude crude lesbian who is basically a raging horndog drug addict (or IS she?!), and they form an amazing collaborative creative team for visual story-telling.
Questions pop up. How important is ‘permission’ when another’s life story is part of the “YOUR STORY” you want to share in a very public way? How much of the overlap is your story versus their story?
How much of the story and the subsequent story is MINE, ours, YOURS?
What’s NOT so good: Ah. Ah, yes. . . I’m sorry, can you repeat the question?
I would feel for Sharon and then wonder, “Uh what happened? Crap, she’s an asshole.” I always liked Mel, but she was always painted as the sympathetic to-be-sympathized-with-nut crazy, so you would forgive her. She was very well-drawn. Sharon, who truly is the primary character, thus PROTAGONIST of this drama life tale, is a slippery one. To me. She would surprise me and usually NOT in a good way. Yet. She was ALMOST empathized with? maybe?
FINAL THOUGHTS: I liked this, I did. And there were a ton of pie mentions so I was often validated in my quest to find a pie mention in my literature (#selfishmaybecertainlystrange). I read some really-not-good reviews and some praising reviews and overall, I liked this very much. So… with all the terrific pie that our characters eat, I give this
RATING: Four slices of pie! I will go with strawberry pie.
I’m glad to have read this. It was different and I learned a lot about lots of things – mostly the creative collaborative animated cartoon concepts and maybe living in NYC. I look forward to spirited debate on this crazy tale.