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November 30, 2012

Nick Flynn and Experience

Don't you love it when you come across a writer who does something that makes you go, "Wait! You can't do that?!" but then they totally get away with it?  Like in The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald tells it from Nick Carraway's point of view yet you slide easily into Gatsby's past without raising a question.  Nick Flynn's Another Bullshit Night in Suck City is the same way.  It's a memoir, and Nick does things that with any other writer you'd say, "You can't do that!" but Nick gets away with it.  For example, he tells parts from his father's point of view. It's amazing and he pulls it off.  So, speaking of memoirs, today a quote from Nick.

Nick Flynn (via)
"In my experience, whatever happens clings to us like barnacles on the hull of a ship, slowing us slightly, both uglifying and giving us texture. You can scrape all you want, you can, if you have money, hire someone else to scrape, but the barnacles will come back or at least leave a blemish on the steel." ~ Nick Flynn, Another Bullshit Night in Suck City 

2 comments:

bookspersonally said...

I love this excerpt and geez, what an arresting title... need to go learn more about it, asap!

Tamara said...

Absolutely! It's an amazing read. Enjoy!