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Life Would Be Perfect If I Lived In That House (2010)

by Meghan Daum(Favorite Author)

3.14 of 5 Votes: 3

ISBN

0307270661 (ISBN13: 9780307270665)

languge

English

genre

Memoir & Autobiography

publisher

Knopf Publishing Group

review 1: This is just the kind of book I wanted NOT to like. The premise seems vapid: our narrator can't stop moving around, switching apartments, dreaming of the impossibly perfect future where...life (is) perfect (when she) lives in that house. And yet! Something about the book's simplicity: we move through time in a linear fashion. We visit her at each of these houses. We, like the narrator, are trapped, no matter where we live, in this neurotic world view. Kind of like Geoff Dyer's "Out of Sheer Rage," (one of the very best), the book circles and cycles and, peppered with brightly intelligent lines, keeps you hooked. Beyond moving and home repair and other subjects that seem sort of upper-middle-class masturbatory, (something the writer acknowledges, fully, I think), the book i... mores about growing up and getting over yourself. Maybe other readers won't be as hungry for this kind of plain, personal wisdom, but I was. I recommend this to anyone who's ever been obsessed with a place as part of their own identity, or anyone with anxiety, so, almost everyone I know. Also: it's funny.
review 2: There are some compelling observations and beautiful turns of phrase in Daum's memoir of her obsession with homes, decor, and real estate. However, as much as I identified and nodded my head with much of what she wrote, I didn't find anything here nearly as arresting or insightful as any of the essays in My Misspent Youth. This said, I continue to think Daum is a beautiful writer and look forward to her future efforts. less

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