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32nd out of 94 books
—
16 voters
My rating:
add to my books
Meat is Murder (33⅓ #5)
by
Joe Pernice
A Catholic high school near Boston in 1985. A time of suicides, gymnasium humiliations, smoking for beginners, asthma attacks, and incendiary teenage infatuations. Infatuations with a girl (Allison), with a band (The Smiths) and with an album, Meat is Murder, that was so raw, so vivid and so melodic that you could cling to it like a lifeboat in a storm.ExcerptOne morning a...more
Paperback, 102 pages
Published
October 1st 2003
by Continuum International Publishing Group
(first published 2003)
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Shan Jago
marked it as to-read
I’ve never read this but
[This Charming Man, John Peel style, comes on at a party]
Guy At Party: You like the Smiths? Haha.
Me: Yeah. Why not?
Guy At Party: Umm, cause they suck.
Me: First of all, you suck. Listen to that warm, brilliant guitar jangle. It’s like sunshine pop, ya know, which you’d think would completely clash with the eternal ache found in the lyrics, but it doesn’t. In fact, it enhances the bittersweet quality of the song. ...more
[This Charming Man, John Peel style, comes on at a party]
Guy At Party: You like the Smiths? Haha.
Me: Yeah. Why not?
Guy At Party: Umm, cause they suck.
Me: First of all, you suck. Listen to that warm, brilliant guitar jangle. It’s like sunshine pop, ya know, which you’d think would completely clash with the eternal ache found in the lyrics, but it doesn’t. In fact, it enhances the bittersweet quality of the song. ...more
view all 103 comments
Let's talk about this book.
It isn't really about the Smiths album, which is good, cause I like to eat meat. It's more about this kid thats really into the Smiths album and how hes dorky and way to in touch with his feelings, and basically every other quality that 20 years later would become something women were actually attracted to.
The thing with this book is, its like 100 pages, and you really wont be disappointed. It's as simple as that, a story is told in 100 pages, it take...more
It isn't really about the Smiths album, which is good, cause I like to eat meat. It's more about this kid thats really into the Smiths album and how hes dorky and way to in touch with his feelings, and basically every other quality that 20 years later would become something women were actually attracted to.
The thing with this book is, its like 100 pages, and you really wont be disappointed. It's as simple as that, a story is told in 100 pages, it take...more
I've been reading the Thirty-Three-and-a-Third series of books, which are like extended liner notes to albums for people who don't think the originals had enough liner notes to begin with. So far, the series has been hit and miss. Didn't care must for Dusty in Memphis, but the book about Love's Forever Changes and the Kink's The Kinks Are the Village Green Preservation Society really helped me have an appreciation for those two albums.
Unfortunately, Joe Pernice's book on The Smiths' ...more
Unfortunately, Joe Pernice's book on The Smiths' ...more
I found out about the Continuum Books 331/3 series from reading Nick Hornby’s Polysyballic Spree, and he had particular praise for Meat Is Murder by Joe Pernice. I’ll definitely have to read some of the other selections after having read this fine novella based on The Smith's 1985 masterpiece Meat Is Murder, which has my favorite Smiths song of all-time ("How Soon Is Now"), it is the only selection that is fiction, and the others are essays. Anyway, Joe Pernice is the lead singer/songw...more
In the mid-1980's music collecting was a hard job. There was no internet, of course, and the radio couldn't be depended on and music television was lame. If you weren't into Billy Ocean or Billy Joel then you had no environment to lean on. Smiths fans in the U.S. all had this in common, we all had to search high and low for an obscure release here and there, and then quickly network with like-minded friends and swap. Joe Pernice captures and chronicles the plight and obsession we all made part o...more
I liked this book, but it's quite short and I felt it was just beginning in the last 20 pages. It felt like half a book. At least it was the half I liked.
Part of the 33 1/3 series, which involves writers exploring favorite albums at great depth, Pernice’s effort was at the time of its writing (and, I believe, still is) the only entry that’s fiction. However, that’s the only way in which it is unique. This is a very, very average coming of age story; the protagonist is almost exactly like every other teenage protagonist who can’t get laid and who thinks his privileged white suburban life is omg so hard—the only thing different about him, I guess, ...more
First impression: no other book in the 33 1/3 series is going to top this. Joe Pernice has completely thrown aside the notion of dissecting the songs, and instead written a hundred page piece of fiction inspired by Meat is Murder, the album that the book is ostensibly about. And, truthfully, said piece of fiction is so good I don’t even feel worthy of telling you how good it is, much less pound the typer discussing it at length. This has become a book I’ve recommended to many, and when they prot...more
That joke isn't funny anymore...
I give this book 4.5 stars. I mean it is good. It is the perfect length for what it is doing, it is a fast read, a couple of hours. It is suppose to be a representation of what it was like to grow up in the era of the smiths, but it felt more like what it is always like to grow up. It seems to be an attempt to deal with death, mainly suicide.
and from my reading the book truly ends up being about "the joke" which is perhaps a meta...more
I give this book 4.5 stars. I mean it is good. It is the perfect length for what it is doing, it is a fast read, a couple of hours. It is suppose to be a representation of what it was like to grow up in the era of the smiths, but it felt more like what it is always like to grow up. It seems to be an attempt to deal with death, mainly suicide.
and from my reading the book truly ends up being about "the joke" which is perhaps a meta...more
I'm very on and off with what I think of The Smiths- Morrissey is a really depressing guy and the book did not give me a different image of him, just added on to what I already thought- But well written!
What was nice about the writing in this one was the use of Joe Pernice's personal experience and relation to this album- it was raw, it felt really honest and it was like learning about some guy I don't really know about as well as The Smiths at the same time. Good honest work.
What was nice about the writing in this one was the use of Joe Pernice's personal experience and relation to this album- it was raw, it felt really honest and it was like learning about some guy I don't really know about as well as The Smiths at the same time. Good honest work.
Where most of the 33 1/3 books are historical/musicological looks at the album and the the people involved with it. Meat is Murder is actually a fictional novella loosely based in the mid-80's and centering around the album. The narrative character describes his school and personal experiences in a way that I could more than identify with, given that I too went through high school in that same time period.
This was a gift from someone who knows I enjoy music by the Smiths. Very well written and engaging work of fiction. The Thirty Three and a Third series is composed of books that claim to be an extension of album liners. This book was different in that it was a work of fiction with the album worked into the story.
Entering my obsession stage of The Smiths. Rogan's biography, "The Severed Alliance" was so meticulous, and the group's music so meaningful to me that I went crazy reading about them until I burned myself out. They are still one of my favorite bands though.
Probably better to just listen to the album again. Joe Pernice revisits his adolescence and manages to make interesting events (some suicides, a crush) aggressively banal. This is the worst book I've read all year.
This book was quite dense in the way that it felt to me as if Joe Pernice really tried to squeeze every last odd word from the dictionary and make every character very eccentric. E.g. "Paul's cough sounded much more productive and serious than my own because it was."
A good thing about the book is that he didn't use The Smiths/Morrissey too much; of course he referred to lyrics but not that often. Nor did he over-use references to the album, which was nice.
All in...more
A good thing about the book is that he didn't use The Smiths/Morrissey too much; of course he referred to lyrics but not that often. Nor did he over-use references to the album, which was nice.
All in...more
Nowiehanson
rated it
Recommends it for:
fans of the smiths maybe
Recommended to Nowiehanson by:
Was a gift from B-lo, though he hasn't read it (yet?)
Short but sweet. Just a fictional story about a HS boy and his pining over a girl, wanting to start a band, and his love of the Smiths. Very well written, at least to my standards. Apparently it's also the first piece of fiction by the author, Joe Pernice, but from what I understand he is also in a band called the Pernice brothers, so I might have to check that out now too. I have a feeling he might have a gift for writing lyrics.
Unlike the rest of the 33 1/3 series, this book isn't at all...more
Unlike the rest of the 33 1/3 series, this book isn't at all...more
This was the first 33 1/3 book I ever picked up. I wasn't pleased with it. I chose it 'cause at the time, I was a casual Smiths fan, and was into Joe Pernice. From what I had heard of the series of books, I expected something more like Franklin Bruno's dissection of Armed Forces.
Well, it ain't that. It's a novella in which hardly anything happens, and he tries for some kind of nostalgia or poignancy that, for my money, he never hits. I don't even feel like there's a tonal con...more
Well, it ain't that. It's a novella in which hardly anything happens, and he tries for some kind of nostalgia or poignancy that, for my money, he never hits. I don't even feel like there's a tonal con...more
I'm callling bullshit on this one. Why would I want to read a fictional account that involves a Smiths album (of all things). Oh, and it's written by a failed musican...wow, cool. Yeah, NO. When I buy 33 1/3 books I want facts, stories, tid bits, and the "behind the scenes" look about a seminal album. This was not that...far from it...and bullshit. Of course crazy Smith's fans probably love it, but crazy Smiths fans used to camp outside of Moz's house in LA until he finally got f...more
Was a let down. I expected some perspective into the 'Meat is Murder' album and instead got a fictional story about some high school guy who becomes a fan of the album. I did enjoy some aspects of the story, but it simply was not what I had been anticipating in the years that I waited to read this book. Side Note: It was odd to me that the story contained a few of the lyrics from "Back to the Old House", a song that wasn't even on the 'Meat is Murder' album. Still a nice touch, however...more
so cute.
Not what I was expecting, after having just read Court and Spark. But I love love love Joe Pernice for his lyrics, so it was a real treat to read a piece of fiction he had written. I loved his style, and the way he portrayed the high school experience. There wasn't quite as much about the Smiths album in there as I thought there'd be, but it worked for me.
First off, I love Joe Pernice, but I owe most of this to his career as primary songwriter for the Pernice Brothers. NOW, concerning this novel, it reminded me that everyone has a story about their favorite story about their favorite record. It made me want to go listen to Wish by the Cure over and over again, just like I did in 6th Grade.
A really horrible novella placing the Smiths' album in the center of a worse-than-generic coming of age story.
If you want good Smiths-related fiction, check out Mark Spitz's How Soon is Never.
If you want good Smiths-related fiction, check out Mark Spitz's How Soon is Never.
A quick and easy read, but very good...a must for any Smiths or Pernice Brothers fan...Read this with Meat is Murder playing on your iPod. A great companion piece to "Perks of Being a Wallflower"
One of the more successfully experimental entries in the 33 1/3 series -- a fictional coming of age with the Smiths. Not necessarily great literature, but enjoyable for the context.
looking at the fringe to tell something about what's going on inside. A very nice novella about the significance of music (the Smiths) when you're growing up as a young boy
I learned from this book that the author had a pretty normal suburban childhood wherein he listened to the smiths. I could not think of a less unique topic for a book.
It's a quick read, at just over 100 small pages. Does a good job of summing-up the ethos of high school despair that leads to rock n' roll. I do indeed recommend!
The fictional story of a high-school misfit in Boston and his reaction to this album. I really liked it, though if you don't like the Smiths, don't bother!
It was fun to read someone's personal connections and nostalgic remembrances related to an album that has a lot of personal connections for me as well.
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