A Common Pornography

May 04, 2010 oriana rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: read-2010

I feel really, really guilty that I didn't like this book more than I did. I mean, everything I know about Kevin Sampsell (who is my "friend" on both GR and FB) makes me think he's terrific: really creative, quite influential in the indie press scene, very nice and funny and interesting. And I knew a good deal about this book going in, so I was seriously planning to love it, to be blown away by the captivating insanity of an incredibly fascinating, fucked-up life. I was expecting a lot of blood...more I feel really, really guilty that I didn't like this book more than I did. I mean, everything I know about Kevin Sampsell (who is my "friend" on both GR and FB) makes me think he's terrific: really creative, quite influential in the indie press scene, very nice and funny and interesting. And I knew a good deal about this book going in, so I was seriously planning to love it, to be blown away by the captivating insanity of an incredibly fascinating, fucked-up life. I was expecting a lot of blood and gore, as it were. Not actual blood or gore; I mean, I knew it was a story about a super fucked-up childhood, so I thought there would be intensely graphic and emotionally devastating moments throughout. And there were a few of those, but they were very far between, and this is a strange thing for me to complain about, I know, because I don't even particularly like extremely intense despair or graphic abuse or anything like that at all. But it just seemed like Kevin spent so much time meandering toward the bad things, or like he gave the bad things equal weight in the body of the memoir as he did to things like this one kid's nickname in the fourth grade or a house on fire down the street or how much he liked football statistics or where in his room he kept his porn stash. And clearly this is an intentional tactic, and maybe is meant to be a comment on how much weight bad shit should carry in one's memory of one's life, and I really do respect Kevin a lot for putting everything out there like this, honestly I do. But I'm really sorry to have to say that I just couldn't make an emotional connection with nearly anything. A few scenes stick out -- a bunch of his friends getting drunk and failing terribly at a porn shoot; his job at a "taternuts" (potato-dough donuts) shop; some weird experimental poetry performances -- but most of the rest of what I was expecting to be a terribly intense, upsetting book has blurred in my memory -- only a couple of weeks later! -- into just a random jumble of not particularly interesting anecdotes from a lived life.(less)

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Sep 16, 2009 jeremy rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: oregon, memoir-bio

composed of brief, chronological accounts, a common pornography is kevin sampsell's unabashedly frank memoir. recounting the formative incidents of his youth, sampsell writes with great courage about family drama, sexual exploration, and the inevitable uncertainties of adolescence.
written without pathos, sentimentalism, or apology, kevin never resorts to the banal, woe-is-me affectations that have come to mark so many autobiographical works of late. funny, tragic, touching, and often unbelievabl...more

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Mar 01, 2010 Lee rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: potential-conflict-of-interest

Kevin is a righteous writer/editor/Powell's small-press section curator dude I know from the early Aught's online literary world and Eyeshot. We're both Sixers fans, and at one point in his memoir he mentions Sedale Threatt, the best-named backup point guard during Charles Barkley's (or anyone's) era. Started reading this right after the Canadians beat the US in hockey and finished a little after midnight. I rarely read 216 pages in a single sitting, but I found the short chapters consumable, th...more

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May 13, 2013 Leon rated it 4 of 5 stars

“For beauty, honesty, sheer weirdness, and a haunting evocation of place, Kevin Sampsell is my favorite Oregon writer. Ken Kesey, Chuck Palahniuk—make some room on the shelf.”—Sean Wilsey, author of Oh the Glory of it All

Kevin Sampsell’s A Common Pornography is a memoir, told in vignettes, that captures the history of one dysfunctional American family. An extension of a 2003 “memory experiment” of the same name, A Common Pornography weaves recollections of small-town youth with darker threads

...more

“For beauty, honesty, sheer weirdness, and a haunting evocation of place, Kevin Sampsell is my favorite Oregon writer. Ken Kesey, Chuck Palahniuk—make some room on the shelf.”—Sean Wilsey, author of Oh the Glory of it All

Kevin Sampsell’s A Common Pornography is a memoir, told in vignettes, that captures the history of one dysfunctional American family. An extension of a 2003 “memory experiment” of the same name, A Common Pornography weaves recollections of small-town youth with darker threads from his family’s story, including incest, madness, betrayal, and death. A regular contributor to Dave Egger’s The Believer and McSweeney’s, Sampsell has written “the kind of book where you want to thank the author for helping you feel less alone with being alive” (Jonathan Ames, author of Wake Up, Sir! and The Double Life is Twice as Good).

From Publishers Weekly

A memoir in collage form, this frank but fragmented narrative chronicles the author's early life in the Pacific Northwest. Told in a series of small pieces, some less than a quarter of a page long, Sampsell follows a stream-of-consciousness series of memories centering loosely around a collection of family secrets unearthed after his father's funeral. Replicating the effects of memory, Sampsell's chronicle begins piecemeal and becomes more detailed as it goes, emphasizing the unfiltered honesty of the story and his efforts to tell it. Though it can be frustrating waiting for the pieces to add up, there's enough bathos, dysfunctional family antics and coming-of-age adventures-naked photoshoots, psychiatric hospitalizations, late-night donut shops and the tri-city New Wave scene-to keep readers turning pages. Sampsell's eye for detail and deadpan delivery envliven a dark personal history with bathos and a powerful desire for understanding.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

Many coming-of-age memoirs depict a journey through hellish abuse. Sampsell’s verbal snapshots capture the more peripheral scene of a kid along for the ride, under the watchful eye of a distant, resentful father—“a humorless, God-fearing bore.” For many who grew up in the 1970s and ’80s, the details of this American life will be familiar: the music, the sports teams, the Jaws-inspired aquaphobia, the release of the hostages from Iran, the mannerist rebellion of New Wave. Other aspects will resonate with males, from the naive cruelty of boys to elaborate strategies built around the acquisition and secretion of dirty magazines, to a candid account of obsession with girls and/or sex that recalls Jeffrey Brown’s tell-all graphic novels. McSweeney’s readers may recall some of these pieces reworked and fleshed out from an earlier chapbook, and while some newer passages (such as those about the abuse and institutionalization of Sampsell’s half-sister) feel arbitrarily chopped into vignettes, mostly the material perfectly fits the form, shards of memory fused into a compelling concretion of moments. A worthy addition to the work of such contemporary memoirists as Nick Flynn, Augusten Burroughs, Dave Eggers, and Stephen Elliott. --David Wright

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May 12, 2012 Deirdre rated it 3 of 5 stars

The first few pages of this book were depressing; dark, sad and ugly. I credit the author for having enough courage to write about his own family with such honesty, but the first few pages are definitely not pleasant. Luckily, he didn't wait too long to spin into descriptions of his own childhood. The things Kevin remembers about childhood are amazingly similar to my own memories. When he talked about looking through baseball cards, I thought of my brother's XMen binder, filled with collector's...more

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Aug 18, 2011 Malbadeen rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: memoir-ish, confused-or-informed-my-sexuality

A few weeks ago I was in the back seat of a car for 12+ hours. I arrived at my friends well prepared for the trip, a bag loaded with all kinds of boredom distractors (sudoku, knitting, novels, short stories, ipod, etc). But on the way out of my friends house I noticed this book on her shelf and started reading it while she finished packing.

I didn't touch the other stuff in my anti-boredom bag after starting Kevin's book. The book is interesting and sometimes funny and sometimes sad and frequent...more

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Apr 19, 2010 Craig rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: non-fiction-and-memoir-favorites

Several of my friends told me that I needed to read this book for the interesting way in which it deals with memory.

Several of my friends said that they found this book to be interesting, but hard to read due to the fragmented state of its narrative.

I honestly have to go with the first group if I am to take sides. I honestly din't find this memoir hard to read in any way. In fact, I found its matter-of-fact approach to memories a bit less ego-istic than most memoirs. The "main character" in this...more

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Mar 20, 2010 christa rated it 1 of 5 stars

I remember the moment like it was yesterday. I was lying in bed in a pair of baggy wide-legged olive green sweatpants, a stained white tank top, and for some reason a bra. A bra?! To bed?! I was just too lazy to remove it. And then, on page * of Kevin Sampsell's memoir "A Common Pornography," I realized that I was in the midst of something really special: The first contender for "Top Three Worst Books of 2010." I felt a rush of adrenaline that my body probably mistook for an aerobic workout.

Unt...more I remember the moment like it was yesterday. I was lying in bed in a pair of baggy wide-legged olive green sweatpants, a stained white tank top, and for some reason a bra. A bra?! To bed?! I was just too lazy to remove it. And then, on page * of Kevin Sampsell's memoir "A Common Pornography," I realized that I was in the midst of something really special: The first contender for "Top Three Worst Books of 2010." I felt a rush of adrenaline that my body probably mistook for an aerobic workout.

Until that point, this collection of vignettes about growing up was just boring. But in the section about the upstairs neighbor girl entitled "Jaynee," Sampsell's father is especially attentive to the little girl. Late at night, young Sampsell lies in his bedroom below Jaynee's apartment and hears sounds from upstairs. "We wondered what was in her heart," Sampsell wrote of the little girl. Gag.

I see what Sampsell is doing here. His large family is a collection of half-siblings, and his father is a pedophile first, an asshole second. So he takes a series of unspectacular memories that rarely have anything to do with his family, and provides snapshot of his life -- yet packages it as something prompted by the death of his father, who really plays a very minor role. Like, he wouldn't even be listed in the credits. Some writers can do this -- write in the slow, quiet voice Sampsell is aping. In fact, Nick Flynn just did it in "The Ticking is the Bomb." But Sampsell mistakes "slow, quiet voice," for lifeless tedium about Joan Jett tapes, playing with the neighbor boys, and the collection of high school girls he dated into his 20s.

Frankly, this is a series that should have been titled "Kevin Sampsell: 101 Different Ways to Get a Handy." He steals what the Beastie Boys would call "porno mags"; He gets a handy from one of his friends while his girlfriend hooks up with another dude; He clips photos of an eclectic mix of ladies from said magazines, and files them in a folder; He gets another handy from a freeloader at a film booth in an adult bookstore.

There are girlfriends, and DJ gigs, and rock bands and open mics where he reads his poetry and sorta makes a name for himself as Mr. Poetry Man. But none of this has his fingerprints on it. It is just generic stories that everyone has, but stripped so bear that they aren't stories to relate to. (less)

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Feb 04, 2010 Diane rated it 3 of 5 stars

Despite the bad publicity of a few memoirs by people who were later determined to be less than truthful, the genre is still flourishing. I recently reviewed The Kids Are All Right, the story of the four Welch siblings, who were left orphaned after their father's death in a car accident and their mother's death by cancer a short time later.

The four siblings took turns writing about their memories in short, one and two page sections. It has been said that each child in a family grows up with diffe...more Despite the bad publicity of a few memoirs by people who were later determined to be less than truthful, the genre is still flourishing. I recently reviewed The Kids Are All Right, the story of the four Welch siblings, who were left orphaned after their father's death in a car accident and their mother's death by cancer a short time later.

The four siblings took turns writing about their memories in short, one and two page sections. It has been said that each child in a family grows up with different parents, and their story illustrates that point.

Kevin Sampsell's memoir "A Common Pornography" is written in a similar style. His one-and-two page mini-essays read like diary entries. Reading them is like sitting with Sampsell while he is looking at a family photo album, each page a picture triggering a memory. The pictures add up to a life lived in a family that is deeply troubled.

Sampsell has two older half-brothers who were pretty much out of the house by the time he could remember. His half-sister spent ten years in a psychiatric hospital, and while there gave birth to a child who was taken from her. She later married an abusive man who pimped her out for sex to other men. She again got pregnant and again gave up her baby. She was impregnated once more, this time by her stepfather, Kevin's father.

Two other brothers lived with Kevin, one of whom was black. Matt was the product of an affair that Kevin's mother had with an African man when she and Kevin's father had been estranged. Kevin describes a beautiful story Matt told him about going to Africa and meeting his father's relatives. He had several mannerisms of his father, and they were mesmerized by this young man who looked and acted so much like their deceased relative.

Out of this sad, violent, strange family, Kevin managed to grow up. His stories of loneliness, isolation and attempts to connect with girls are heartbreaking, and yet familiar to many. His description of working at a donut shop and the friends he made there had me flashing back to my first job working at a movie theater.

His stories about his his father's funeral and the feelings it triggers in him and his siblings almost hurt to read. His brother Mark, the one who stayed behind to care for his ill father, seems almost totally unable to function as an adult. Following the funeral, Kevin's mother attempts to share all of the secrets that she had been keeping, answers to questions the children were never allowed to ask.

A Common Pornography is heartbreakingly sad, speared with humor, yet above all it is honest. Sampsell speaks truth to the difficulty of finding oneself in this lonely world, made all the more frightening by the horrible dysfunction he grew up in. It is not for everyone, there is rough language and tough situations, and it is not written like a conventional memoir, but many will find it comforting to know that there are people out there who share their struggles.

Thanks to Harper Perennial for providing me with a review copy.(less)

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Feb 03, 2010 Eh?Eh! rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: goodreaders-made-me, lit-huh-rary, babble-added

I think Montambo was reading this so when I saw it for sale I flipped through, liked, bought.

I just went to the author's reading at Powell's. If the book doesn't have a "voice" written into it, an attempt to capture an accent or regional slurring, I "hear" the words with a soothing, resonant, deep tone. Male and female characters, all the same. Sampsell's real voice was surprisingly (to me) soft, lispy, and soothingly nerdy. I had a major eyestrain headache brewing and almost decided to just go...more

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Jan 28, 2010 David rated it 4 of 5 stars

Many coming-of-age memoirs depict a journey through hellish abuse. Sampsell’s verbal snapshots capture the more peripheral scene of a kid along for the ride, under the watchful eye of a distant, resentful father—“a humorless, God-fearing bore.” For many who grew up in the 1970s and ’80s, the details of this American life will be familiar: the music, the sports teams, the Jaws-inspired aquaphobia, the release of the hostages from Iran, the mannerist rebellion of New Wave. Other aspects will reson...more

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Mar 05, 2013 Rae Klock rated it 1 of 5 stars

I started this book with extremely high hopes. I am a big fan of short fiction, especially "flash fiction" and who doesn't love hearing about other peoples dysfunctional families? But yet, the further I got into the book, the more I hated it and Kevin Sampsell.
First, I felt no compassion, connection or empathy for the character, especially as it dragged on. He has a really great way of writing about things so mundane that don't really relate to the overall arc of the story, and just leave you ya...more

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Mar 06, 2010 Mike rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: memoir, nonfiction, undefinable

In the "short, disjointed vignettes" subgenre of memoir (see: Amy Fusselman, Sarah Manguso, David Shields, anyone else?) Sampsell found a way to do something intriguing and new-feeling with the approach. I've been trying, since I finished the thing a few hours ago, to figure out how.

As KS himself puts it, the book isn't structured via traditional dramatic arc, but rather as a "memory experiment"; just patches of quick stories about sex, responsibility and danger that--often in a nebulous, haunt...more

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Aug 07, 2010 Sara Habein rated it 4 of 5 stars

Everyone has stories, brief anecdotes relating to our history. Our memories are at once humorous and heartbreaking, some retold again and again, some kept private forever. In A Common Pornography, Kevin Sampsell gathers his stories and assembles them into an atypical memoir, and the results are both intimate and intriguing.

Sampsell’s descriptions of the people he encounters are perfect in their spareness. He has a way of making a person clear within two sentences that might take other writers tw...more

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Aug 05, 2012 Alison rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: read-in-2012, non-fiction, memoir, cnf, brevity, american, about-family

Wow--I practically devoured this book. And to think I almost didn't buy it! I picked it up several times on my first (and only) visit to the amazing Powell's in Portland and kept thinking it seemed intriguing, but I already had a stack of stuff in my hands (which I would have to lug around in the airport in my carry-on bag). Just as I was about to check out with my other stuff, I picked it up once more and read the author bio, which included the fact that the author worked for Powell's Books--he...more Wow--I practically devoured this book. And to think I almost didn't buy it! I picked it up several times on my first (and only) visit to the amazing Powell's in Portland and kept thinking it seemed intriguing, but I already had a stack of stuff in my hands (which I would have to lug around in the airport in my carry-on bag). Just as I was about to check out with my other stuff, I picked it up once more and read the author bio, which included the fact that the author worked for Powell's Books--he could be there right now!--and for some reason, that sold me.

Later, as I found myself unable to put the book down, I asked myself why I was so compelled; would I be just as addicted to reading it if it were *only* about the awkwardness of growing up--if the author hadn't shared the dark, deeply disturbing family secrets at the beginning of the book? I'd like to think I would be, that I'd have been just as entertained by the author's little snippets about growing up in the 70s and 80s. But something about the way he mixes the funny and mundane (like his obsession with taping TV theme songs, or his older brother's sudden moment of transcendence at a Lionel Richie concert) with the tragic (his father's abusiveness), and the sensation of reading them in small, sort of rhythmic bites, was mesmerizing.

As I got further into the book, there were, however, a couple things I found really jarring that slightly tarnished my otherwise amazing experience of reading it: namely, that some of the sexual urges Sampsell brings up (especially in the vignette "Korea," in which he simply says that he and his friend wanted to "feel the skin of" a cashier, who they seem to be plotting to attack) aren't explored further or explained.

And a couple of smaller things: there's a timeline in the back of the book highlighting the author's experience as the editor of a micropress, and I wish now that I'd read that first, or that it was at the beginning of the book, because, when I was reading along about this young man in his New Wave-y, making-out-with-high-school-chicks and somewhat lost-seeming adolescence, the author/narrator suddenly says, "and then I published this guy's book, and ..." And my reaction was like, "huh? He did what?" It was a little off-putting because it just didn't seem to "go" with the life of the young man I was reading about. (This guy who has sex with girls in their parents' basements is a "publisher"?)

And finally, as someone who grew up in a town the size of a postage stamp, I always have to take a small issue with any book, movie, or TV show that describes itself as taking place in a "small town" when the place they're describing actually has like 100,000 people. But that's just a cranky thing about me.

Overall, I was blown away by the honesty, humor, voice, and vivid detail in this collection of "memory experiments," and am so glad that I didn't leave Powell's without it. (less)

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Jun 15, 2010 Katherine Aungier rated it 5 of 5 stars

I feel like there is so much sentiment in this book without being bossy or leaving you betraying the storyteller to see the whole story.
I liked the glass castle for that reason, too.
I would not necessarily buy this for my mom on xmas (in m y case the reverse happened-I got the Glass castle ) as a Common Pornography is more explicit and thus in my mind better. yes I shirked away "honest and heartfelt and at first, as this combo normally backs me into a corner and put a dunce cap on my head yel...more

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Dec 30, 2012 Josie rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: literature, non-fiction, depressing

I'm really not sure how I feel about this book. It's a series of autobiographical vignettes by a man who grew up in Tri-cities and moved to Portland. It starts off a little depressing and ends a little depressing. The man grows up poor in an abusive environment, and never really resolves things with his family. The stories are all short (page to three pages), which makes it somewhat of a challenge to read through like a book. There's a rough chronological organization to them, but because of the...more

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Feb 12, 2010 Jamie rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: prose-fiction

For those who like full disclosure, Kevin Sampsell published a comic book story I wrote in PORTLAND NOIR, and he also set me up with my readings at Powell's Books over the years. That said, those are favors that are behind me, I totally took and I ran and I could easily get away with trashing the guy's book if I wanted. Which is my was of saying you can trust me, I have nothing to gain here. A COMMON PORNOGRAPHY is some good reading.

This memoir has been described by the author as a memory experi...more For those who like full disclosure, Kevin Sampsell published a comic book story I wrote in PORTLAND NOIR, and he also set me up with my readings at Powell's Books over the years. That said, those are favors that are behind me, I totally took and I ran and I could easily get away with trashing the guy's book if I wanted. Which is my was of saying you can trust me, I have nothing to gain here. A COMMON PORNOGRAPHY is some good reading.

This memoir has been described by the author as a memory experiment. It's put together as a bunch of vignettes, short pieces of specific remembrances of the author's life, tracking him growing up in the late '70s and through the 1980s. Some chapters are a page long, a couple are five, some are just a paragraph. The anecdotes are told without embellishment, with only bare reflection, these are the moments as either he remembers it or someone in his family remembers it. As you first start reading, the bits and bobs seem disjointed, but the further in you go, the more a whole begins to form. A life comes into focus, almost like staring at those 3-D art things that used to be so popular. It's a matter of not looking, of just letting it come clear.

A COMMON PORNOGRAPHY is the sort of book you can read a few pages at a time, and you may start out that way, but pretty soon, you'll discover you can't sit down with it and not read 20 pages, then 50, and then you're done. Kevin's prose is clear and direct, there isn't a word out of place. The senses are vivid, tactile. With just a few spare syllables, he roots you firmly in a place and a time. Sadness lurks between the lines, the despair of nostalgia, but there is never a sense that the author is feeling sorry for himself. I'd say he's at peace with what has gone on, actually. And not that it's all a downer. A lot of it is really funny, too.

It's also hopeful. Though Kevin doesn't outline the lessons learned, he does find ways to show them through action. The last events he chooses to relate reveal how far he's come from the anxious little boy we met at the start of the book, and the final lines bring it all to a perfect, effective close. Like the title suggests, we are voyeurs peeking in at something that is maybe risque, the truest emotions lain bare, but the truer thing is, there is nothing common about it. Rather, this book is something very special.(less)

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Oct 28, 2007 Kevin rated it 5 of 5 stars · (Review from the author) · review of another edition

Shelves: nonfiction-or-memoir, small-pressy-or-obscurish

This is probably my favorite of my own books, maybe because it's the most personal. I was surprised about all the feedback I got about this book (a series of vignettes about growing up in Kennewick, Washington, and doing things that boys do). There were only about 600 printed so it's pretty hard to find now. I'm working on a longer version of this to republish. Any interested publishers out there?

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Feb 04, 2010 Tattered Cover Book Store added it

Shelves: from-the-indienext-list, jackie-recommends, staff-recommends

Jackie says:

Folks in the book world may recognize this author's name--he's Powell's Bookstore's event coordinator. He's written quite a bit in the past (LIT, Hobart, McSweeney's, Night Train just to name a few journals and web sites, as well as two short story collections of his own) and is the editor of Portland Noir. He's also the publisher of Future Tense Books. But this book is different--this is personal, about his family and his life as a young man that he calls "a memory experiment". Writ...more

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Jan 20, 2010 Brandon rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: sampselliana

I bought this earlier today and read the entire thing tonight. The book largely recounts stories of Sampsell's sexual awakening, his failed coming-of-age romances, and his memories of an unlikable, distant father. It accurately captures how subtly rebellious children can be, and in turn how foolishly irrational adults can be. It does all this without glorifying the narrator (or even really demonizing the father), and comes across surprising honest. Just the facts. Much of it makes me nostalgic f...more

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Nov 09, 2009 Riley Parker rated it 5 of 5 stars

One of the most daring pieces of non-fiction writing that I have ever read. Kevin Sampsell speaks about his life in a tone that is both intimate and slightly distant, never romanticizing his adolescence but rather focusing on moments of doubt, and embarrassment, and the seemingly mundane. As a character in his own story, Kevin is often too flawed to root for, but it is then, in the moments when he is the least likable, that he becomes the most relatable. Kevin Sampsell, from his own account, has...more

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Oct 29, 2009 Jackie rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: books-by-friends, nonfiction, work-review-related-reading

Folks in the book world may recognize this author's name--he's Powell's Bookstore's event coordinator. He's written quite a bit in the past (LIT, Hobart, McSweeney's, Night Train just to name a few journals and web sites, as well as two short story collections of his own) and is the editor of Portland Noir. He's also the publisher of Future Tense Books. But this book is different--this is personal, about his family and his life as a young man that he calls "a memory experiment". Written in short...more

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Mar 04, 2010 Matt Briggs rated it 5 of 5 stars

This book takes what was a really solid little zine style book and turns into a fully fleshed memoir. This is perhaps the best book about Kennewick, WA that has ever and probably will ever be written. My grandmother lived in Ephrata, and the desolation and disconnected world of Eastern Washington it captured very well in Sampsell's short pieces about the house, and for some time basement, where his family lived while he grew up. The form of the book is really great. It directly addresses the amb...more

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Nov 09, 2009 Mykle rated it 4 of 5 stars

Kevin Sampsell's writing has a surgical deadpan quality that instills every word with tension. Which has one effect when applied to his comical or psychosexual short stories, but quite another when he's describing his own traumatic childhood and creepy family dramas in this new memoir.

Honestly, I'm not a fan of the memoir genre. And because Kevin is a friend of mine, this book has a completely different effect on me than it would on a stranger. If you don't know Kevin personally, here are some w...more

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Sep 28, 2011 Sara rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: memoir-biography

Some of these recollections are hilarious, some are sad, some make you just feel uncomfortable, but they make for an unforgettable read. I laughed out loud at some of them (the story of him losing his virginity to a prostitute, for example - details and descriptions were just unexpectedly funny) and some of them made me cringe and feel disquited.

Short blurbs about the author's life, his dysfunctional family, sexual life, fatherhood, work, everything. This is a very brave book, the stories are v...more

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Mar 02, 2010 Mark Ferguson rated it 4 of 5 stars

This memoir-in-vignettes in beautifully, succinctly written. I feel like the writing style mimics the way I actually experience and remember my own life. Most memoirs try hard to tell a coherent story, using moments from the past as plot devices to create some kind of linear narrative that may or may not accurately reflect what it was like to LIVE as the writer actually did. A COMMON PORNOGRAPHY avoids this by relating short snippets of the author's life unencumbered by constant, meaningless, af...more

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Mar 20, 2010 David Raffin rated it 4 of 5 stars

Because of this book I will never view Pee Chees or false ceilings the same way again. I don't think they make Pee Chees anymore. What's a kid to do now?

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Feb 23, 2010 Lori rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: arc-reviewers-copy, nonfiction

Many thanks to Harper Perennial for sending me a copy of Kevin Sampsell's "A Common Pornography" for review. Had they not generously shipped it to me, I am ashamed to admit I may never have read it. Those who know me, and my taste in literature, would not be surprised by that statement. I am pretty vocal when it comes to non-fiction. I tend to steer clear for many reasons, which I shall spare you the details of here. Let's just say reading "A Child Called It" when I was younger, and more recentl...more Many thanks to Harper Perennial for sending me a copy of Kevin Sampsell's "A Common Pornography" for review. Had they not generously shipped it to me, I am ashamed to admit I may never have read it. Those who know me, and my taste in literature, would not be surprised by that statement. I am pretty vocal when it comes to non-fiction. I tend to steer clear for many reasons, which I shall spare you the details of here. Let's just say reading "A Child Called It" when I was younger, and more recently "Eating Animals" have scarred me for life (for different reasons, of course!).

My first reaction, as I started reading, was one of disbelief. It's hard to believe that all of this stuff happened to one person. I had to keep reminding myself that this was a collection of memories, real situtations that happened with real people. What a crazy life this must have been for him.

My second reaction was "oh my god! His family and friends are going to read this! What will his mother think? What will his SON think?"

It certainly takes a very strong, confident person to take the good, bad, and horrific moments in their lives and write them all out for the entire world to see. And it's not just enough to write them out, is it? It's a matter of accepting the truth... of holding that mirror up to yourself and not flinching at what looks back at you. It's a matter of understanding that these are the moments that have shaped you, that made you who you are today.

I had to constantly remind myself that the words I had been reading were real. That this was not just a fictional story of made up characters that have all these hilarious, embarrassing, and sometimes frightening things happening to them. That these are real moments that occured in a real persons life.

I want to thank Kevin for opening up, and being brave enough to share these snapshots of his life with me. He helped me to realise that I am not the only one out there with skeletons in my closet, memories that make my skin crawl and others that make me laugh till I cry. He helped me realise that it is natural to be human.

Don't let this memoir pass you by. Don't wait for a copy to fall into your lap.(less)

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Jul 29, 2012 Heather rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: memoir

Last month I took a class that Kevin Sampsell taught (along with Chloe Caldwell) and my interest in reading and writing memoir was piqued. Kevin mentioned he had written this book, so I decided to read it. It was all the more exciting because I love reading people's writing that I know or have even just met, in Kevin's case.

The book is told in little vignettes and short essays on his youth spent in Kennewick, WA. The first parts of the book establish a somber tone that seemed to linger through...more

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