Comments on: All Over But the Shouting — an inital reaction roundup

By: Dave Lifton

Dave Lifton — Wed, 21 Nov 2007 05:53:28 +0000

Thanks for the link. My podcast interview with Jim is now up at http://www.wingsforwheels.net/wordpress/?p=451

By: jimdracula

jimdracula — Sat, 17 Nov 2007 22:00:40 +0000

Lindeen may be a charming & nice person in real life, but that’s altogether different from being a writer who dazzles the public & unforgiving literary critics. Philip Roth, for example, is a right nasty bastard who can write like nobody’s fuckin’ business. So I enjoy his books, but I don’t have to have dinner with the son of a bitch.

Blasty brings up an interesting point: He relates to the regional things Lindeen writes about since he also lived up north, while Mimi notes she couldn’t connect with it for the same reason & (in my book) this is the author’s fault. I’m not a black kid living in the slums running a crew of cocaine dealers, but I can relate to every word of it in Richard Price’s “Clockers.” Richard Price is a gifted writer; gifted writers create a world in which the reader can live. I got nothing against Laurie Lindeen, just her book.

By: Jodi

Jodi — Sat, 17 Nov 2007 15:54:38 +0000

Blasty, I think you bring up the reason why I found Petal Pusher so frustrating. Lindeen is charming and parts of the book are charming. But she made deliberate choices (the choppy timelines, the slipping into second person to avoid naming names) to mislead the reader. I am not sure why she chose to write a memoir when she didn’t want to be honest.

Of course, Petal Pusher probably would not have had the audience it had if it were a novel by Paul Westerberg’s wife. A memoir by Paul Westerberg’s wife has a lot more commercial appeal.

There’s nothing more I hate in a book (fiction or nonfiction) than when the author is dishonest. I would even go so far as to say that she brought up more questions about the infamous abortion by slipping into the sneaky second-person then she would have if she’d just been honest with us.

By: mimi

mimi — Sat, 17 Nov 2007 00:27:03 +0000

yeah there’s something about both books that i could not connect with. interesting stories though

By: blasty

blasty — Fri, 16 Nov 2007 21:50:28 +0000

I really liked Petal Pusher. I’m not saying that it was written perfectly, but it had it’s charms.
I think that one of the things that I liked about the book was that she grew up near me, around the same time, and I can really relate to a lot of the things that she wrote about, especially in her youth, and into the eighties. Regional things, like shopping at Fleet Farm, partying at your friends house when their parents were up north hunting, the cream of mushroom cassaroles with the crunchy topping……..things that someone from outside of this area wouldn’t connect with. Things that brought back memories from my youth.

By: jimdracula

jimdracula — Fri, 16 Nov 2007 18:20:12 +0000

Thanks Jodi, I enjoyed your Largehearted Boy review of Petal Pusher more than the actual book. You were very generous in your observations. A musician buddy in NYC has a theory that fans of PW keep a lid on their negative opinions on this book out of respect for Westerberg & I agree. Like you say, Petal Pusher has so much material to work with – Mpls rock scene, personal struggle with disease, Westerberg, family divorce – & in my estimation the writer choked. There is nothing lazy & dull about the subject matter, yet Lindeen’s plodding prose makes it so.

By: Jodi

Jodi — Fri, 16 Nov 2007 17:49:58 +0000

So now do you look back on that day as the best day of your life?

By: jay

jay — Fri, 16 Nov 2007 17:40:00 +0000

I found this website because of that review;)

By: Jodi

Jodi — Fri, 16 Nov 2007 17:17:17 +0000

Jim,

I’m kind of torn on Petal Pusher. There were parts of it I really liked and found amusing and there were parts of it I really hated.

One of things I’ve learned in my writing classes is that writers make choices and I think Lindeen made a lot of, well, bad choices. Her book comes off as less than honest and some of the self-deprecating stuff doesn’t come off that way.

I can say that after seeing Lindeen read at the Facebook event back in June, I had a better appreciation of Petal Pusher. However, it still makes me mad that some of her choices were made to intentionally mislead the reader, I don’t think that’s fair.

Also, if you care, you can read the review I wrote of Petal Pusher over on Largehearted Boy.

By: jimdracula

jimdracula — Fri, 16 Nov 2007 12:59:23 +0000

I finally finished Petal Pusher two weeks ago so I can officially proclaim me hating it. Since I have family & buds who thought it was a waste of money, I went in wanting to like it, but it was a chore to get to the last fucking page. So in answer to Blasty’s question to me a few months back: Yes to Jim Walsh being a superior writer to Laura Lindeen. I find members of this board to be superior writers to Laura Lindeen & this board doesn’t cost a cent. Regarding Pusher:I want my money back. That is all.