Let Me Clear My Throat

June 25, 2012
In this funny, visceral collection of essays, Passarello explores the ways our voices can entertain us, connect us, ruin us, vent our pains, and tether us to a place or tradition. Subjects range from sports announcer Myron Cope’s pretzel-mouthed Pittsburghese to Marlon Brando’s gut-wrenching “Stella!” in A Streetcar Named Desire and the punctilious mouth diagrams of Frank Sinatra’s “Tips on Popular Singing” pamphlet. In the most moving essay, an account of Judy Garland’s legendary concert at Carnegie Hall meanders forward and backward through the diva’s troubled life, taking us from the “little red-walled room” of her mother’s womb, filled with her voice, to the glittery blue velvet that lined her final bed after an overdose of Seconal. Passarello isn’t afraid to get personal, either, revealing how years of her own mother’s “harpy” bellowing prepared her to win the 2011 Stella Shouting Contest, and musing on the cawing of the crows that populate her wintry Iowa backyard as a metaphor for the tougher grit that rock ’n’ rollers like the Fendermen injected into popular music’s songbird melodies. The essays are interspersed with brief monologues from voice-over artists, auctioneers, singers, psychics, American Idol contestants, and Holy Rollers, discussing what voice means to them. This striking debut is graceful even in its portrayal of the most barbaric groans and yelping cries.

Starred review from September 1, 2012

In a brilliant combination of rigorous study and conversational tone, actor and essayist Passarello has created a remarkably entertaining and thought-provoking look at the human voice and all of its myriad functions and sounds. In the same fascinating way Oliver Sacks explores scientific curiosities, Passarello has taken something so ubiquitous yet unheralded--the dynamics of the human voice--and crafted more than a dozen engaging essays about it. Covering topics as varied as the memorable but almost assaultive tones of Pittsburgh sportscaster Myron Cope, the blast of discomfiting sound delivered by then-presidential candidate Howard Dean in 2004, a brief but moving portrait of Judy Garland and her 1961 Carnegie Hall concert, and a wonderful piece called "Playing Sick" about the childishly glorious sound of "eew," this collection is an insightful treasure trove, reflecting the author's love and awe of what the human voice can contain. VERDICT Few books explore one idea so completely from such a variety of seemingly disparate angles. A wonderful collection for any reader and every library. Highly recommended.--Peter Thornell, Hingham P.L., MA

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