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Extraordinary Theory Of Objects: A Memoir Of An Outsider In Paris (2012)

by Stephanie LaCava(Favorite Author)

3.17 of 5 Votes: 5

ISBN

0062223666 (ISBN13: 9780062223661)

languge

English

genre

Memoir & Autobiography

publisher

Harper

review 1: If only we could give half stars, I want to rate this as a 3.5.LaCava reminded me of myself a bit as a child and teen. Being a bit odd, the fascination with collecting things. The writing style is beautiful, but for a memoir, it's very disjointed. It starts strong, but there isn't a rhyme or reason to the massive time jumps. There are certain areas that I think she should have expanded upon (like her treatment after her mental breakdown) and towards the end, she's not very clear why she is going back and forth between Paris and New York again.I had very mixed feelings about the pictures and footnotes. While I enjoyed them, they interrupted the flow of reading. Maybe they could have been bettered served at the end of the book, after the epilogue.
review 2: A bo... moreok more concept than content; more mood than meaning, and ultimately, as ephemeral and snooty as the fashion mags the author refers to repeatedly. Two stars to honor the interesting concept and lovely drawings; other than that, this book taught me little about LaCava's life or her obsession with things. What seems like it began as a promising personal essay for a CNF class became a strangely elided memoir. Although some scenes from LaCava's life are clearly drawn, others are simply confusing (was she depressed? Mentally ill? A "normal" teen?) or underdeveloped (what WAS her dad's job?). And though I appreciate the postmodern inclusion of extensive footnotes explaining various people and objects, at best they felt like a Wikipedia entry, and at worst like condescending explanations of obscure allusions so the hoi polloi would comprehend her depth and sophistication. There wasn't really a good reason to continuously interrupt the prose to read about Kurt Cobain or violet candies. Although I had begun with sympathy for a teen uprooted at a pivotal time in her life, I became less sympathetic to her "plight" -- oh noes, living in France and attending a fancy pants private school, the horror! -- the longer I read. less

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