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Joe Brainard: I Remember
Joe Brainard's I Remember is a literary and artistic cult classic, praised and admired by writers from Paul Auster to John Ashery and Edmund White. As autobiography, Brainard's method was brilliantly simple: to set down specific memories as they rose to the surface of his consciousness, each prefaced by the refrain "I remember": "I remember when I thought th...more
Paperback, 176 pages
Published
February 15th 2001
by Granary Books
(first published 1975)
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I had an early edition of this book and I imagine this one is the same. Maybe not? Nevertheless it's a classic and it seems to be a writer's favorite. in many ways it reminds me of Raymond Queneau's Writing in Style. It is probably one of the great writing manuals as well as a work of poetry. Prose work to the max. Whatever you call it, this work is a masterpiece.
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thanks to David E and others on goodreads, I too am now a fan of Joe Brainard and his wonderful 1975 memoir, recently reissued by Granary Books.
Yes, it's as good as they told me it would be. It carries a cumulative emotional power.
Brainard had this wonderful combination of acute observation, innocence, humor. His memories are both intensely personal and nearly universal.
Some random passages:
I remember an algebra teacher who very generously pass...more
Yes, it's as good as they told me it would be. It carries a cumulative emotional power.
Brainard had this wonderful combination of acute observation, innocence, humor. His memories are both intensely personal and nearly universal.
Some random passages:
I remember an algebra teacher who very generously pass...more
This book is either intimidating or annoying. I Remember is meant to be read in one sitting. I made the mistake of taking a break because my grandmother made me breakfast. As I started peeling an orange, every action I was doing in the present became an "I remember" statement in my head-- for at least a half-hour. Everything I looked at became, I remember, as if it had already happened-- because my brain had been trained to repeat and expect that statement at the beginning of a sentenc...more
On its face I Remember is nothing more than a seemingly endless series of brief declarative statements starting with the simple words of the title. But it becomes something much more than that. Brainard is so forthright, so perceptive, so directly simple and his memories so real, so particular that, as one reviewer put it, "his history coincides with ours."
There is no narrative in the sense of beginning-middle-end but the memories pile on top of each other such that you...more
There is no narrative in the sense of beginning-middle-end but the memories pile on top of each other such that you...more
John Wiswell
rated it
·
review of another edition
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review of another edition
Recommends it for:
Prose poetry readers, innovative fiction readers, fans of Joe Brainard
I am uncertain if this is the same edition as the one I own. Mine has a living room on the cover.
However, the book I read could be a new genre: list memoir. Brainard recalls seemingly random moments and aspects of his life in small bites, many as small as a sentence. There's little sense of cohesion on any page (or block of ten pages), making it feel extremely vulnerable. Unfortunately, it feels more lazy than innovative, as Brainard couldn't be troubled to shape his recollections co...more
However, the book I read could be a new genre: list memoir. Brainard recalls seemingly random moments and aspects of his life in small bites, many as small as a sentence. There's little sense of cohesion on any page (or block of ten pages), making it feel extremely vulnerable. Unfortunately, it feels more lazy than innovative, as Brainard couldn't be troubled to shape his recollections co...more
Oh yeah--great little book. Open to any page and you're guaranteed something fun, charming, colorful.
p108
I remember The Millionaire on TV and how you never got to see his face.
I remember "Two hairs past a freckle" when someone asks you what time it is and you don't have a watch.
I remember when I was very young a hand-wringer washing machine in our basement and visions of what it could do to your hand if it got caught in it.
I ...more
p108
I remember The Millionaire on TV and how you never got to see his face.
I remember "Two hairs past a freckle" when someone asks you what time it is and you don't have a watch.
I remember when I was very young a hand-wringer washing machine in our basement and visions of what it could do to your hand if it got caught in it.
I ...more
these snippets of memory do a better job than any autobiography could. you get sights, smells, actors, sexual experiences, friends, cities, sayings - in small digestible portions. they all add up to a story of Joe Brainard's life that makes me feel like I know him, just a little bit and that we are the same, just a little bit.
This book was perfect for me. A combination poem, memoir and historical document. Also, I absolutely loved the form: the repetition of "I remember" and the short discrete memories that sometimes followed one another and sometimes didn't. Amazingly simple, yet utterly brilliant.
This book is odd in terms of form, but I ended up really enjoying it and also seeing something intriguing about it. It got annoying at times, but I was simultaneously in awe of what Brainard was doing here. The book might not be my favorite memoir in the world, but there is a lot I can learn from studying Brainard's work.
Kate Mcfarland
rated it
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review of another edition
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review of another edition
Recommended to Kate by:
kmcfarla@hotmail.com
Shelves:
nostaligia
I found this book when traveling abroad, so it may just have special significance. The whole thing is a series of "I remember" statements - you laugh, you cry, etc., but it's not cheesy. Recommend to read while listening to Damien Rice.
A masterpiece!!! one of maybe 20 essential books of 20th century for me!!! The others being all of Phillip Whalen, Ted Berrigan, Frank O' Hara, Bernadette Mayer, Eileen Myles, Kenneth Koch . . .
This IS a great handbook for anyone with 'Writer's Block'.
I saw this book recommended by one of my favorite authors, Michael Cunningham (he wrote THE HOURS). Michael teaches a Creative Writing course at Columbia University and I'm sure he implores his students to read this one. It is an easy, simple read of "I REMEMBER..." lines of memories from the 1940s and 1950s. It is a 'must read' for any writer who has writers block as it will spur new ideas into one's head, encourag...more
I saw this book recommended by one of my favorite authors, Michael Cunningham (he wrote THE HOURS). Michael teaches a Creative Writing course at Columbia University and I'm sure he implores his students to read this one. It is an easy, simple read of "I REMEMBER..." lines of memories from the 1940s and 1950s. It is a 'must read' for any writer who has writers block as it will spur new ideas into one's head, encourag...more
I laughed. I cried. I put it in a poem. What a sweet guy. I remember about half of these things, which seems weird considering that I was born in 1979. Shrug.
I loved this book when I first read it over thirty years ago (the edition with the yellowy-orange French-looking cover, published by Full Court Press). I loved it for the glamour of all the references to American brands and customs, which made it seem both real and other-worldly. I loved the complete unavailability of some of the memories and the way others were not only available but shared. And I loved the sexiness of it, and the way it reminded me of sexy moments (and people) I'd forgotten, e...more
Honor Moore recommended this book during her "craft talk" so I picked it up. I think it is brilliant and it makes me want to write.
I remember reading this book and thinking what a brilliant gimmick and then trying to copy it and finding it is not as easy as that.
I'm a bit skeptical about the format, but if Jessica T. loves it and Granary Books reissued it, there's probably something there.
Why did it think until the mid 20th century for someone to come up with this? Simplistically brilliant. And contagious.
I remember learning to play bridge so I could get to know Frank O'Hara better.
-Joe Brainard, I Remember
-Joe Brainard, I Remember
Joe Brainard is such a fantastic poet & visual and this book is without a doubt a masterpiece. From the boring to the zen like attention to nothing important, I Remember is a classic biography of sorts told in one paragraph per page. Not in any order, one can pick up this book at any point and just marvel at its wit and precise writing.
I know a lot of teachers use this book for writing students - it seems like the perfect fit. In many ways it reminds me of Raymond Queneau's "E...more
I know a lot of teachers use this book for writing students - it seems like the perfect fit. In many ways it reminds me of Raymond Queneau's "E...more
All the warmth, humor and good-natured silliness of Brainard's art are here in these "poems"--1-3 sentence reminiscences that meander from his Tulsa childhood to sexual experiences in New York in the mid '60s. Brainard records impressions like a camera, not trying to sort them or make them mean, or bothering much to distinguish "high" from "low." In the process, he mananges to describe an America of a certain time and place more vividly than longer, more macho effor...more
Author influenced Naja Marie Aidt in Best European Fiction 2010
Austin Kleon recommended this on his blog.
six stars.
Great idea.
All the warmth and pop pathos of Brainard’s art are here in these “poems”—1-3 sentence reminiscences that meander from his Tulsa childhood to sexual experiences in postwar New York School New York. Without pretension or arty irony, he captures the gut feel of an America of a certain time and place better than longer, more macho efforts to lasso The National Experience. Maybe Brainard’s our Pindar, straightening the halos on the products oblivion just lost.
Not something I'd normally read, interesting the way memory jumps around in this...
I wonder at my total absorption and obsessive reading response to this sort of form, which I'm calling my "povel" shelf, creds to Geraldine Kim, whose book is called *Povel*. I think it has something to do with the attractiveness of individual subjective narrative "voice" without the imposition of linear or cause-and-effect narrative form. Not a story but more like a picture. And the poemy form-fronted thing.
A kind of anaphoric zhuitsu.
"I remember when a fart invades a room, trying to look like I didn't do it, even if, indeed, I didn't.
I remember the way a baby's hand has of folding itself around your finger, as though forever.
I remember the different ways people have of not eating their toast crust." pg 164
"I remember when a fart invades a room, trying to look like I didn't do it, even if, indeed, I didn't.
I remember the way a baby's hand has of folding itself around your finger, as though forever.
I remember the different ways people have of not eating their toast crust." pg 164
Brilliantly simple, and adaptable as an exercise for one's own writing or workshops at any level. Smart in its resistance to order, how it insists on remaining strange and wondrous and haphazard. A great book. I hope one day when we colonize space that I can take this to the Moon with me.
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