And Now We Are Going to Have a Party: Liner Notes to a Writer's Early Life

by Nicola Griffith

All the parts are here as boxed set that includes the memoir bound in five volumes (including diary entries, photographs, poetry, and early fiction). The box also contains a facsimile of Nicola's first book (created age 4), a CD of songs by Nicola and her early-'80s punk band, Janes Plane, as well as three scratch-n-sniff cards, a fold-out poster, a letterpressed preface by Dorothy Allison, and a numbered signing sheet (this one is hand signed and numbered 55). This is a limited edition of 450 signed and numbered box sets. The only thing that appears to be missing is the paper band around the box that I've seen pictured elsewhere.

Genres: Nonfiction, Collections, Memoir, Biography Memoir

Paperback

First published January 1, 2007

About the author

Nicola Griffith has won the Los Angeles Times' Ray Bradbury Prize, the Society of Authors' ADCI Literary Prize, the Washington State Book Award (twice), the Nebula Award, the Otherwise/James Tiptree, Jr. Memorial Award, the World Fantasy Award, Premio Italia, Lambda Literary Award (6 times), and others. She is also the co-editor of the Bending the Landscape series of anthologies. Her newest novels are Hild and So Lucky. Her Aud Torvingen novels are soonn to be rereleased in new editions. She lives in Seattle with her wife, writer Kelley Eskridge, where she's working on the sequel to Hild, Menewood.

Series:
* Aud Torvingen

Reviews

[Kel]

I was hesitant to purchase this because of the price. I've never paid $57 for a book before. Especially a memoir. Memoirs usually bore the shit out of me (um, might as well be honest?). But this is a different story, literally. Read it in one sitting. Laughed so hard my neighbors probably think I'm mad. And, well, if I cried too, it's none of your damn business. A dollar value cannot be assigned to a work of art as beautifully emotionally invasive as this one. Reading about the lives of strangers can be disconcerting sometimes, especially strangers whose work I admire. Here it is a joy. Like the best of her fiction, it rips your heart out and alternately fills it up in all the right places. That it's not fiction makes the story all the more powerful.

[Jason Lundberg]

A multisensual multimedia memoir experience, told with wit and heart and a fantastic sense of humour. A life of much adventure and exploration, and Griffith relays it in honest (and sometimes heartbreaking) prose. Every bit as strong and lovely as her novels. The five-volume memoir is beautifully packaged along with "a facsimile of Nicola's first book (created age 4), a CD of songs by Nicola and her early-'80s punk band, Janes Plane, as well as three scratch-n-sniff cards, a fold-out poster, a letterpressed preface by Dorothy Allison, and a numbered signing sheet."

[Timons Esaias]

This work feels like an edition of McSweeney's Quarterly Concern, with its mixed contents inside a box. It includes a CD of Griffith's music, a reproduction of her first childhood book, five pamphlets of memoir, and the all-important scratch-and-sniff cards. (Alas, by the time I got around to reading this the s+s seemed ineffective.)

I met Nicola briefly when she attended Clarion, and have been a fan since I read her main Clarion story, and since Ammonite, Slow River, and The Blue Place. When I came into possession of this unusual box, I did wonder if it wasn't a bit early for a memoir; and I suspect that's why it was allowed to quietly age on my unread shelves for 16 years (I suspect 20 years is the average in this household...). But recently reading Hild and Spear put me in mind of it, and here we are.

One is tempted to review a memoir by judging the character of the memoirist, but really the key thing is whether it is entertaining and interesting. I found this highly entertaining, and regret not reading it much sooner.

First, I rather love that the title for this memoir comes from that childhood crayon picture book that we have as a facsimile. Also, I could identify with a specific detail of her career: that her first important sale was to Interzone. So was mine, and I had a similar transition experience as a result. In her case she realized that "Writing is about being alone in a room. It is not about living in the thick of a close community." She had been tightly engaged in an outsider/LGBT/music/lit world, and getting serious about writing broke that off. (In my case I had to do "reintroduction rounds" because folks suddenly decided that I was too important for them to speak to. It was a weird experience, but I've had to do it a couple of times since, so it's a Thing.)

Another favorite quote: "Most of us only see what fits with our preconceived worldview. If there's something inexplicable out there, we deny its existence. But if we let ourselves see, we understand that our worldview isn't big enough. So then we have to make up a story that makes sense of the initially inexplicable. Writing help (sic) me understand the world and my place in it." Again, I relate to this as the impetus to writing for me has been to explore what I don't quite understand. I haven't been able to find a thing I want to write over and over, because my drive is to go somewhere I can't foresee.

She also grew up with family members who weren't mentally well, which tends to be a driving force for many writers.

Nicola's life was quite wild, I should point out, which provides some of the fascination of this early memoir. She lived somewhat beyond the edge, and only gradually and sporadically crossed back over the line. Yikes, I say.

It was interesting to read about the origins of interests that inform her fiction, especially a fascination with languages and dialects.

Is this thing worth hunting down? (It was a limited edition of 450 when I got mine.) Yes.