The Talking Cure

June 18, 2001
In the '80s, a type of performance art sprang up in New York that was half Rousseau, half comedy routine. Karen Finley and Spalding Gray were the pioneers of this form, as was a New York radio personality, Mike Feder. Feder's new book shoehorns the stream-of-experience confessional into the lyrical novel form pioneered by Henry Miller, and the result is a seemingly uncensored cascade of petty vices and city adventures. Usually, this kind of thing is well criticized by La Rochefoucauld's dictum, "The extreme enjoyment we find in talking about ourselves should make us fear that we are not giving very much to our audience." Remarkably enough, Feder never lapses into tedium. His account of his psychological aches and pains—his crazy mother in Queens, who eventually killed herself; the two times he spent in mental wards; his distant relationship with his father and search for a father figure after his real father died; the breakup of both of his marriages, his volatile career in New York radio and theater—is fed by a high-voltage self-awareness, an utter surrender to his inner rhythms. His descriptions of his first stage monologue—"I talked straight ahead, hardly a pause for breath, for at least an hour, sometimes more"—could pass as an explanation of the way this book is paced. Sometimes his revelations are embarassing—do we need to know all the ways that he competed with his three-year-old daughter, Sarah, for his wife, Susan's, attention?—but his inability to sort out the trivial (including an old complaint about a bad review his first book, New York Son, received from PW) from the important lends his book its bizarre, endearing authenticity.

August 1, 2001
Longtime radio storyteller and Off Off Broadway performer Feder grew up in Queens, New York, across the street from a cemetery. He also regularly viewed his ranting mother being hauled away to mental hospitals. Later in life, he would twice voluntarily check himself into mental institutions, both times as a result of breakdowns that were, seemingly, beyond his control. This memoir recounts Feder's younger years, as well as the stories behind his creative successes and failures, including the genesis and production of his previous book, New York Son; his years as the host of a stream-of-consciousness radio show on WBAI in New York; and the situations in his adult life that brought about his one-man stage presentations. Looming over this entire story is Feder's account of the psychological treatment that both helped and hindered him. This is a stunning read, gripping and relentless in its portrayal of Feder's often-terrifying experiences. Recommended for libraries in the New York City area and academic libraries with a media focus. David M. Lisa, Wayne P.L., NJ

Copyright 2001 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.