I’m about halfway through Laurie Lindeen’s memoir Petal Pusher: A Rock and Roll Cinderella Story, and I’m having some trouble. The book is frustrating me and I can’t tell if I’m being hyper-anal writer or if this is the kind of thing any reader would pick up on.
Lindeen is not making things easy on me. Her voice is great, personal and friendly. Sometimes it feels as though she’s just sitting on your couch telling you things, and I like that. It makes the weird time shifts feel real. Because that’s how you tell a story to your friends. It’s as though she’s going along writing and you can almost hear her say, “Oh wait, wait, wait, first this happened. . .”
The fact that this is story I am bound to love isn’t helping matters. She’s writing about something that’s very close to my heart — the Minneapolis music scene from the 80s and 90s — and yet I’m torn up about the book.
I have put the knowledge that she’s Paul Westerberg’s wife out of my head. I think she should be judged on her own merits, and from what I’ve read of the book she’d want that too. That alone is tough.
What’s killing me is that some of the writing is repetitive and clunky. While reading I find myself saying, “yeah, yeah we already know this, you’ve told us that six times already.” And the dialog? The dialog is, as my writing teacher Dale would say, ‘pass the ketchup’ dialog. It serves no purpose at all (at least not yet). It doesn’t reveal character, it doesn’t advance the plot, it does nothing besides act as a place for the eye to rest. I would argue that dialog should do more than provide whitespace.
So here’s the dilemma, the question, how do you judge a book? Do you let the story rest on it’s own merits or do you consider the writing? Can they be separated? Should they be separated? Would you recommend a book to your friends even if the writing was kind of bugging you? Or would you not even notice it?
I know there are a lot of readers and a lot of writers who read iwilldare.com, what say ye? I’m genuinely curious.
Books are funny like that. You can hate a story, but love the writing style. I hate horror films, yet I can admire the directing, acting and camera work. I guess you may have to judge it like your friends: You can have friends you absolutely adore even though they seem to talk on endlessly about things of little consequence. In the end, if the person is facinating enough, you can forgive the wordiness.
Is your book facinating enough?
For me, a great story can overcome a multitude of sins. But, I’m not real picky like some people 😉
& In regards to the dialog, I totaly agree.
Of course you agree, because I am right.
Yes, yes you are. Bet that happens a lot, uh?
Well, here’s me.
If the author of a book is a Writer (caps on purpose), then I expect good stuff. If I don’t like the writing, I’ll say that. Good story, crappy writing. I separate them out, but the writing does bug me sometimes.
If the author is not a Writer, as in the case of many autobiographies/memoir, I don’t expect as high a standard because, hey, they’re not pretending to be a good writer. They’re telling a story, which anyone has the right to do. In that case, unless the writing makes me seriously cringe and prevents me from understanding or liking the story, I’ll still read it.
I always notice bad writing…but sometimes it’s forgiveable and sometimes not so much.
I agree somewhat, but boring is boring. So I think it depends how engaging the story is.
Forgot to add. ImagineKeith Richards regaling you with a story when he’s too drunk to talk. Doesn’t matter that you know it’s probably a fucking great story if it’s too irritating to sit through.
Keith Richards telling a story would be too irritating to sit through drunk or sober, so that’s probably not the best comparison.
a good storyteller does not a writer make….do you believe me now?
I agree with you 100%, FFJ. A storyteller is not always a writer, and a writer is not always a storyteller. How often is it said in workshops “This is beautiful writing, but where’s the story?”
I feel like I’m answering a question posed in one of my online courses via the professor….but here goes….I judge a book by these criteria.
1.) believability
2.) characterization
3.) the scale of memorable passages (will I remember this shit later or is it just total shit that’s not worth keeping in the brain)
4.) writing style
A good story written with bad writing…that’s like eating a chocolate bar you found at the bottom of your backpack 3 months later. You have to pick off the fuzz, the bits of paper that you can’t recall the origin of and you eat it…you wouldn’t admit it to anyone, but you eat it and you kind of even like it…afterall it’s chocolate. But damn it would have been so so much better to have found a brand new untouched undamaged bar of chocolate instead.
A good story and bad writing can be separated. Bad writing is distracting to the very core of a truly professional reader. (you are one…don’t question it now..)
I would recommend a book to a friend if the writing had bugged me…and I would offer up that disclaimer. Hey this book is interesting but let me know what you thought of the writing later…okay? And I would probably buy the book for the person so I had no remorse about the recommendation.
I always notice bad writing. I don’t try to…I just do it. For example I really hate people who use ellipses….constantly…..I mean how totally fucking distracting…is that?
Oh and do you honestly think ANY woman is or was or will ever be good enough for Mr. Westerberg? I mean really, he did have to settle for someone, I understand that.
p.s. this would have been A worthy without all the damned aggravating …. ….. …. ……
In the end, I guess I judge a book by how much money the movie version grosses at the box-office.
I also like shallow pools, shallow indentations, shallow creeks and the thickness of rice paper.
It’s the prog debate isn’t it?
Prog Rock is as unhip as it’s possible to be, yet the musicians invariably are the most skilled, incredibly technical, and the most critical of bad playing.
Here we are discussing the technical aspects of a memoir, it’s Laurie’s story in her own words.. you can’t ask for more than that, I could argue the better the writing the further we get away from the experience and the closer to showing off just how clever the writer is.. but that’s what happened with prog rock, the players got so good the songs disappeared.
How many great stories do we not know because the writing wasn’t good enough? Too many probably.