Horror Stories

Starred review from October 14, 2019
In a debut memoir as candid as her music, Phair eschews themes of typical rock-and-roll tell-all for a more introspective look at events in her life. Phair, who released her debut album Exile in Guyville 1993, made her name with bluntly honest and sometimes sexually explicit lyrics focused on desire, independence, and relationships. She does the same her, moving nonlinearly through her life and focusing on “the small indignities we all suffer daily,” where horror is found “in brief interactions that are as cumulatively powerful as the splashy heart-stoppers, because that’s where we live most of our lives.” Nine months pregnant, she became self-conscious as she was examined by her ob-gyn, recalling her first visit with a male pediatrician who erroneously told her that “she was very tight. It may be difficult for her to have sex.” Her stories include realizing that a boyfriend is a “calculatingly dishonest” cheat, her own infidelity during her first marriage, getting lost in a blinding New York City snowstorm late at night, and dealing with the frightening fallout of a street fight in Shanghai that she started. Phair admits that she can still make “colossal errors in judgement,” but her empathy for people’s “private struggles” shines throughout: “The stranger next to you is so much more like you than you think.” This powerful debut will delight Phair’s many fans.

January 10, 2020

Indie-rock darling Phair's unconventional memoir details the moments that have haunted her, the ones that keep her up at night, the ones in which she acted against her best instincts, or reacted in a way that left her feeling ashamed or embarrassed. She writes that "examining the weaker moments in our lives makes us stronger," which is her aim here. Phair describes not helping a young woman passed out in a bathroom at a party and not speaking up when she was uncomfortable at photo shoots, as well as choices that doomed her marriage. She points out that it's difficult to share these kinds of truths and that doing so leaves us vulnerable to judgment and rejection, but that ultimately it reveals who we are more completely and leads to more fulfilling relationships.

VERDICT Fans of the author and those who enjoyed Patti Smith's memoirs will relish this book.--Stephanie Klose, Library Journal

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