One of my goals in 2021 is to read more. See other books I've read or listened to here.
My friend Noah was getting rid of some books before they moved and I spotted Carrie Brownstein’s memoir, Hunger Makes Me a Modern Girl.
Carrie Brownstein is one of the forerunners and creators of the post punk girl band Sleater Kinney. She is an actress and comedian also well known for Portlandia. In Hunger Makes Me a Modern Girl she shares moments of her childhood, creating her dream band, her thoughts on growing up queer and her struggles with anxiety and mental health.
I was never a huge fan of Sleater Kinney, but I was indrotuced to them by an ex who was. Much like my favorite post punk band, Sleater Kinney contained an introverted but luminescent member who people of a certain ilk were drawn to. In Sleater Kinney that was Carrie Brownstien. Lovely, queer, quiet but Carrie wrote my favorite song from the group. She titled this memoir after that song. I was very interested in learning more about her relationshio to the band, growing up in Olympia Washington, and growing up queer. And while this memoir does relate many of those things, as well as her relationship with her mother who suffered from a severe eating disorder, her father coming out as gay later in life, and her struggle with mental health and anxiety, this book is mostly about her time and experiences with Sleater Kinney. This memoir is weirdly impersonnal, holding the reader at arm’s length at all times. How Brownstien felt about many of the elements in her life is told in a clinical or separated way, and one never feels like you know the whole story, even from her perspective. She is holding back from connecting with the audience and with telling her truth. I enjoyed this book, but it left me not much more educated about it’s subject than I was before reading it. I would recommend this book to readers who like band memoirs, especially those who like to hear about each album of a band and how they were conceived, or fans of the band Sleater Kinney. I would not suggest this book for those who like in depth memoirs, or fans of Portlandia.
What is your favorite book about a band? Or what is your favorite memoir?
This book can be seen in my June Wrap Up.