MADOREABLE

cover courtesy of bleachedwhale.com, apparently

At last, a book I can read over and over again. No, seriously. I’m not that guy. I’m not that fucker who, in his first forty years on earth, decides that these are the books I need to read, and continues to read them into obvlion. There are people like that. They horde this set of books. It is their yearly reading schedule. I’ve known people like that. I’m sure there are people like that.

I’m not that guy. Almost always, after reading a book, I pass it on. After reading Amelia Gray’s AM/PM (featherproof books, 2009) the first time, I stared outside the Humvee for a little while, hummed, laughed at certain passages still bubbling in my memory, and promptly started reading it again, this time taking notes for review. I got this book for free. I picked it up from my friend’s house on leave. It was part of my paperegg subscription, a promotion type thing. People in Chicago seem to be kicking ass these days. Little did I know that Gray is from Austin. I should have done more research. Seen if there was a scene in Austin. I was too busy feeling sorry for myself, getting drunk, and not writing enough, while back in garrison.

I suggest buying this book. Now that I’ve read this book, I have a newfound trust in the folks at featherproof, and no longer think it even possible that I made a mistake in subscribing to paperegg books. I like subscription book services by themselves, but now I think they are really legit people. It takes a couple hours tops to read, but you feel like you achieved something in reading it. Its brilliance expresses itself in a modest, I-need-no-introduction sort of way.

Anyway, now to the meat of this review, from my haphazard notes. I had to put John Mayer on in order to write this review properly. When you read this book, you’ll understand. For me, the first notable piece is the third (though numbered as 16), and this may be because I like to write. I imagine that Gray actually does this, which speaks to her talent:

Play a game where you close your eyes very tightly, and when you open your eyes, you have amnesia and you must draw the details of your life from your surroundings. (AM:16)

Not long after that, in AM:22, Gray touts honesty:

…in that adorable voice women reserve for their cats and when they want a large favor performed…

Then onto 25:PM, where Carla talks of how flammable human beings actually are, and Andrew takes it as a threat. A shoddy illustration of the hilarity of her characters, to be sure, but I feel humbled when trying to review this book. Then again I’m not much of a reviewer, anyway, am I? Not that it matters. Some of the memorable pieces haven’t any characters at all, which speaks to the range of the author, doesn’t it? As in 29:PM, where you, the reader, become a character without asking to. This you can actually read for free at featherproof, and as you see, you become a character in a ridiculous, imaginative situation. She’s like a more modern Garcia Marquez minus most of the magical.

Now, hear this, from the philosophical side of this little book:

Everyone forgets that acting on instinct has gotten many soldiers through many wars and the rest of us through long lives. (31:PM)

After that she goes on a streak of emotional reactions for her readership, a streak which looks like this:

• AM:44 – laughter
• 49:PM – weird (pestillence?)
• AM:52 - appreciation of the modern
• AM:68 – in agreement with the picture of love
• 71:PM – reminded of Jesse Ball
• AM:76 - awestruck at “…until she collects the butter knife and puts it in the sink, where it belongs.”

The streak may end around there (that list was from my notes, pretty much verbatim). It may, but what I realized at this point in the second reading was that this is actually many good minibooks in one, each able to stand on its way with its own themes–a John Mayer Concert Tee, cats and other small animals, being lost in a pit of darkness, and so on.  This is definitely one of those books that historians will one day break down and analyze until it’s either better or no good. It’s clear to me that Gray spent a lot of time and effort on this book, because the flawless, polished nature of it is something that takes a writer many hours to achieve on any given piece, and here she’s got ONE-HUNDRED AND TWENTY such stories.

Amelia Gray is an exciting author, and the best thing about her is that she isn’t stuck in this internet ghetto like some of us. Many of us aren’t even conscious of the ghetto we’re stuck in. Amelia Gray is someone I now admire, because of this book. I am sure that this book will hang around for a long time. It will become dog-eared by the time I ever run into her in Austin, accidentally-on-purpose, and just so happen to have it in my pocket, asking her to sign it. This is an important book. I wish that I could just somehow telepathically communicate this fact to you. If you’ve ever trusted any of my reccomendations, then trust this one, and support featherproof right now. If you get a subscription to paperegg, they’ll give you the book. If you’re not up to that, then spend twice, because after you read this book, it’s likely you’ll be buying more stuff from featherproof. I am — I wrote to them and now I’ll be buying everything they’ve done. And that is all.