Identify Books During Unreliable Memoirs (Unreliable Memoirs #1)
Original Title: | Unreliable Memoirs |
ISBN: | 033026463X (ISBN13: 9780330264631) |
Edition Language: | English URL http://www.picador.com/books/unreliable-memoirs |
Series: | Unreliable Memoirs #1 |
Clive James
Paperback | Pages: 175 pages Rating: 3.89 | 3222 Users | 226 Reviews
Declare About Books Unreliable Memoirs (Unreliable Memoirs #1)
Title | : | Unreliable Memoirs (Unreliable Memoirs #1) |
Author | : | Clive James |
Book Format | : | Paperback |
Book Edition | : | Special Edition |
Pages | : | Pages: 175 pages |
Published | : | 1981 by Pan Books (first published 1980) |
Categories | : | Biography. Nonfiction. Autobiography. Memoir. Humor. Cultural. Australia |
Chronicle Toward Books Unreliable Memoirs (Unreliable Memoirs #1)
Really enjoyed the childhood memoir and the wonderful descriptions of post-war Australia. The other 2 books seemed to dwell on how poor, cold, and smart he was and I lost interest.+++
The above are the few words I wrote when I read this many years ago. Clive is so highly regarded, I often feel I should give him another go, but he has always irritated me for some reason. What we used to call "too clever by half".
Now that he's just died, I'm sure there will be a new crop of readers, so I look forward to their opinions.
Rating About Books Unreliable Memoirs (Unreliable Memoirs #1)
Ratings: 3.89 From 3222 Users | 226 ReviewsWrite-Up About Books Unreliable Memoirs (Unreliable Memoirs #1)
James' memoir about growing up in Australia is often riotously funny -- worth reading for those passages alone. But to my eye, he sidesteps some of the deeper material he could've explored, including his relationship with his widowed mother. That lack makes the book a series of humorous childish adventures, but something less than it could have been in the hands of a writer as brilliant as James.A slightly drawn out autobiography describing a boy growing into a man in Australia in the 50s. Its mildly interesting and sporadically funny, but nowhere near as hilarious as the reviews imply. Perhaps Im just too far removed (geographically and age wise) from the subject matter.
Possibly my favorite book of all time. Beautifully written, I heard Clive James' voice throughout the entire book.
I was one of those who suggested that our book club read this, in our elaborate democratic process of choosing books from the library group reading list, but once I started in I couldnt stand it. Given encouragement from others who said they had laughed out loud reading it, I persisted, sort of, which means that I skipped and sampled enough to a) learn more than I needed to know about Clives childhood and adolescence and b) could contribute to the discussion. Ive summarised our discussion here.
Oh my, I don't remember when a book made me laugh out loud. I remember James from long ago on television and have never read anything of his before. I was prompted to by his recent death. His persona was so idiosyncratic and so too was his writing. The references and analogies are particularly vivid to the reader who is a native and of a similar age. It all rang with particular hilarity to me. Maybe it says something not particularly complimentary about my character.
In 2015 I wrote a short review of UNRELIABLE MEMOIRS: Many years ago I remember being given this book for my birthday with the comment "thought you might like this, he's the sort of droll smart-arse commentator that should appeal to you". The presenter of this present knew me well, although I think that they did a massive disservice to Clive James. The first of a series of books he's subsequently written as memoir there is nobody in these books that James picks on more than himself. He has a
This was my Christmas holiday read. 182 pages. No ghost writing here, it was as if Clive was reading his memior to me himself. Clive's dad died while returning home from WW2 and was raised an only child by his widowed mum. A colorful, entertaining,well written, sometimes wordy recount of growing up in post WW2 suburban Australia. I laughed out loud a few times and cringed out loud a lot. This memoir was first published in paperback in 1981 when Clive was 42 and in 2015 a beautifully written
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