More Review Buzz for The Chronology of Water
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Great interview with Lidia Yuknavitch over at Chuck Palahniuk's site The Cult.
Mid-April I posted a slew of reviews (that has a nice ring to it, doesn’t it?) for Lidia Yuknavitch’s hot-off-the-presses The Chronology of Water. It was impressive then with the likes of Bookslut, HTMLgiant, Bookslut, Shelf Awareness, The Oregonian, PNBA Northwest Book Lovers, Pank Magazine, Eugene Magazine, Portland Mercury, Brain Candy Reviews all loving the memoir.
In the past month since that post there have been a lot more fantastic reviews for the book. Here are some highlights…
Molly Labell, Bust Magazine, June/July 2011:
“She takes us on a journey through addiction, sexual exploration, and perhaps most intriguing of all, through creation: of literature, of memories, and of life. Her sharp prose—witty, jarring, worthy of dog-earing—alternates between gleeful postmodern exercise and wrenching elegy. So honest and unapologetic is her writing that you can practically hear her sigh in catharsis as you turn the pages.”
Alison Barker, Chicago Reader, May 2011:
“Lidia Yuknavitch is a self-proclaimed language bandit. Other writers purposely disturb their readers’ comprehension, because, well, they want to change language as we know it. Yuknavitch’s The Chronology of Water plays with language, but it also brings an extra dimension to the wordsmith memoir: it’s a sputteringly good read.”
Amy McDaniel, Paste Magazine, May 2011:
“Speaking of water…as its title suggests, Lidia Yuknavitch’s fierce new memoir, The Chronology of Water (blurbed by Shields, among several eminent authors) takes place entirely off-shore, metaphorically speaking. Nothing about her life has followed the map. Yuknavitch gives new, rich meaning to the by-now-familiar idea of a fluid sexuality.”
Jen Graves, The Stranger, April 2011:
“I love how physical the book is, both in its writing and in its point of view. Her body threatened to rise up from every single page I read. It’s war in there. I’m going back in.”
Richard Thomas, The Nervous Breakdown, April 2011:
“Lidia Yuknavitch is an inspiring woman. Her story brought me to tears several times. The abuse she survived, ingested, and spit out in order to transform herself into the swan that she is today…was indeed a life-changing upbringing. Her story is haunting, touching, and heart breaking.”
Publishers Weekly, May 2011:
“This isn’t a memoir ‘about’ addiction, abuse, or love: it’s a triumphantly unrelenting look at a life buoyed by the power of the written word.”
Vanessa Nix Anthony, Portland Woman Magazine, May 2011:
“The most compelling thing about this story is not its raw palpability, but rather the pure hope and unabashed joy infused in its last chapters. Chronology is about the resiliency of the human heart and its ability to piece itself back together, over and over.”
Portland Monthly, May 2011:
“Lidia Yuknavitch’s unsparing memoir The Chronology of Water includes tragedy, abuse, oceanic booze consumption, and rated-X sexiness. And Ken Kesey, of course.”
Renee E. D’Aoust, The Collagist, May 2011:
“It’s rather a relief that this is not an addiction memoir or a book about too much sex, although there’s lots of great randy sex on these pages. The Chronology of Water is simply an unapologetic story about life.”
KLCC interview with Laura McCandlish
