Edmond Manning, I Probably Shouldn't Have Done That

[Ulysses]

I Probably Shouldn’t Have Done That
By Edmond Manning
Pickwick Ink Publishing, 2013
Cover by L.C. Chase
ISBN: 9780989097956
Four stars

I’ve read all of Edmond Manning’s “Lost and Found Kings” books, and am a huge fan of his wild, visceral, emotional style. He’s a brilliant writer, without pretension, full of love.

I finally decided I should read his book of non-fiction essays, which, unsurprisingly, are autobiographical. They are by turns hilarious and poignant, absurd and shockingly true. The book starts off with the silly little “Flying High,” which is a giggle-inducing memory of the results of inattention on an airplane. But the variety of topic and mood is large, and each essay is a surprise, a small gift from a writer to his friends.

There are stories about Manning’s misadventures, about his friends, about his family, about his life as a writer. What they have in common is that they all open windows into this writer’s head and heart. They reveal, bit by bit, the man behind the Vin Vanbly novels, and give the reader a sense of just how much of the real Edmond Manning is in those books.

There is a huge amount in these short essays that resonated with me, even though Manning’s life is not at all parallel to my own in any specific way. Here is an author who gives as much as he gets in life. The whole premise of the “lost and found kings” is not something he made up for his books – it is part of the way he sees the world around him. Manning is a writer of profound gentleness and generous humor. Having read this smattering of memoirs, I think I understand why reading his novels makes me feel so loved.