Memoir Short Takes: Healing, Hilarity & Kink 

The range of topics covered in memoirs enthralls me and could make for some hot summer reading. This month offers highlights from Wall Street, the suburban side of sexual kinks, poetry in healing, and hilarity found in everyday life. I'm finding more I enjoy in memoir purely for this depth and breadth. Pay special attention to Nealon—she's a keeper.

Clifford-Smith, Stephanie. Kink: A Straight Girl's Investigation. Allen & Unwin. Aug. 2011. 296p. ISBN 9781741759129. pap. $16.95 MEMOIR
Clifford-Smith embarked on an investigation into sexual fetishes after a conversation with a friend. What happens when one partner needs to broach a fetish in a relationship? How widespread are kinks? She placed an online ad requesting participants for a research study and soon had answers to many of her questions. Discovery ran the gamut from bondage parties in the suburbs to adult baby play and biological obsessions. Interviews and observations are interspersed with historical research, and the distance helps put some of the kinks into perspective.
What I'm Telling My Friends I dove into this with gusto and not a wee bit of voyeurism, thinking I probably couldn't be shocked. Wrong! Approach with caution, and know there are things that once known cannot be unknown.

Gasbarre, Kristine. How To Love an American Man: A True Story. Harper. Aug. 2011. 304p. ISBN 9780061997396. pap. $14.99 MEMOIR
Gasbarre returns home after a year's worth of unfulfilled romance and nannying in Italy. Her grandfather, the man she's looked to for guidance and her male ideal in many ways, has just died. She embarks on a tenuously supportive relationship with her newly widowed grandmother and finds herself on the receiving end of vast amounts of unfamiliar and seemingly old-fashioned relationship advice. Though coming of age in the bosom of an Italian family is a story that's been told, this is sweet, respectful of traditions and manners mostly lost today.
What I'm Telling My Friends At first glance, this looks like a schmaltzy made-for-TV movie about finding yourself; Gasbarre, however, doesn't lay on too much sweetness. Try it.

Harrison, Todd. The Other Side of Wall Street: In Business It Pays To Be an Animal, In Life It Pays To Be Yourself. FT. Jun. 2011. 192p. ISBN 9780132489669. $24.99. MEMOIR
Harrison lays out his personal Wall Street story, from college kid to Morgan Stanley employee and the life as a trader, always reaching for more. Joining finance with media and education, Harrison ended up creating Minyanville, Inc., aimed at explaining financial matters with cartoon creations representing the Wall Street bull and bear: info-tainment. This is of some interest to hard-core business types, perhaps, but it is such a slim read at a high price with little behind-the-scenes action, it may be best to forego in favor of something with more depth.
What I'm Telling My Friends This is essentially about how a guy made a ton of money, with some creative do-gooding at the end. You know who among your business-driven patrons will like it.

Nealon, Mary Jane. Beautiful Unbroken: One Nurse's Life. Graywolf. Aug. 2011. 224p. ISBN 9781555975906. pap. $15. MEMOIR
Poet-nurse Nealon, winner of the 2010 Bread Loaf Writers' Conference Bakeless Prize for Nonfiction, offers a retrospective of her nursing career. Leaving home briefly while her family grapples with her brother's cancer diagnosis tears her life asunder; her return in time for his death leaves her unsettled. Searching for solace in work, she tends to dying young men as a "flying nurse," then in the trenches of the blossoming AIDS epidemic. Healing others with her skill, Nealon self-heals by writing. A beautifully told examination of a caretaking life.
What I'm Telling My Friends I desperately wish skilled poets like Nealon wrote at least half of all memoirs. This is to be savored. There are meditations on life, death, leaving, returning, growing, healing; I will reread it.

Wilder-Taylor, Stefanie. I'm Kind of a Big Deal: And Other Delusions of Adequacy. Gallery. Jun. 2011. 272p. ISBN 9781439176573. pap. $15. MEMOIR
Author of It's Not Me, It's You and Sippy Cups Are Not for Chardonnay, Wilder-Taylor presents more vignettes that highlight her comedic delivery. While seeking acting jobs (and discovering that she completely lacks acting skills), she recounts with hilarity her jobs as celebrity limo driver, standup comic, and reality dating show writer. In between, she navigates a tenuous relationship with her father as well as the dating minefield. Finding her place in Los Angeles-and in life-isn't easy, but she takes her readers on a sensational joyride.
What I'm Telling My Friends I would have discounted this book for the title, predicting insipid content, but this is a delightful, fun, and smart read by a talented writer with an impeccable sense of timing.

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