Monday, February 18, 2013

I read two new novels titled like self-help books.


They also both share a similar jack hammer like subtlety in terms of their book jacket imagery:
"Are You My Mother" (Alison Bechdel) and "How Should A Person Be?" (Sheila Heti)
I read them both quickly...probably because they were so embarrassing to be seen with on the subway.

I didn't particularly like either one of them--in fact, I pretty much hated, Are You My Mother? Beyond the issues with the book and the therapy happy (ther-happy? yeah, no.) protagonist (and yes, author),  I realized this is mostly because I loved Fun Home more than anything.

I think this is telling and maybe the exact kind of revelation that one could hope for after actually reading a self-help book. So there you go.

A better title for this post might be: I read two new self-help books masquerading as something else.

And I guess they helped. Similarly, I've also been watching Girls.

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