She and I: A Fugue by Michael Brown
July 27th, 2009Title: She and I: A Fugue
Author: Michael Brown
Publisher: Petrarca Press
OK…this book is very conflicting for me. At times I thought it was really good and at times I was very confused. But one place that I wasn’t conflicted is that this book feels 100% pretentious to me. I know why it feels that way though. You see, I am not all that cultured nor do I have particularly “fine” tastes for things. For example…I don’t know what a “fugue” is. I looked it up and it appears to be some sort of musical term. Or at least that is the definition I assume is supposed to be used here. But I don’t get it. It’s my fault of course, but still.
She and I: A Fugue by Michael Brown is a very odd memoir about the author’s relationship with someone he met while blogging. Now, this all happened in early 2001, which was the early style of blogging where people just kind of talked about what they did that day and tried to make introspective observations. Now blogging has more evolved into a mostly commercial activity (which is how I prefer it). But in the author’s blog, he did a lot of talking about his feelings and made very deep observations about life. One of the people who read it was also into making these deep observations about life and they started a mini online relationship.
The mini relationship evolved into a phone relationship and eventually he flew out to visit her in Boston. Oh by the way – the author was in his 30’s and the girl was 19 (or something like that). Eventually the relationship went badly and she broke up with him. I imagine if eHarmony had been popular then…then maybe he could have been matched with someone based on over 40 personality traits rather than randomly meeting someone online.
The book really has some beautiful poetry style writing. It certainly was not written in the normal manner I am used to. That was fun at first. Then it became tiresome. Then it became maddening. Again, I just don’t “get” this type of writing. My idea of a good time is grabbing some dinner and watching World’s Toughest Fixes. Michael Brown’s idea of a good time involves (I’m guessing) an awful lot of contemplating the intricacies of bluebirds and how their songs fill the air with a dreamy like quality that induces a feeling of love and joy…with a slight hint of sorrow because that particular song is really just a search for a mate. That bluebird is as lonely as me.
Now – take that last sentence I wrote…and do it for 283 pages and you’ll get an idea of why I think this book was pretentious. I think it would have been much more successful as a (much) shorter story.
Rating: 2 out of 5
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July 27th, 2009 at 10:36 am
I take it that the author was using the word “fugue” more like it’s 2nd definition from Merriam Webster: ” a disturbed state of consciousness in which the one affected seems to perform acts in full awareness but upon recovery cannot recollect the acts performed”. Maybe you just don’t like reading people who are in a disturbed state of consciousness.
July 27th, 2009 at 11:20 am
yeah…you are probably right. See…I didn’t even understand the title!