Confessions Of A Recovering Slut: And Other Love Stories (2006) - Plot & Excerpts
I couldn't do it. I couldn't do it and that is almost unheard of for me. I think this will be the third or fourth book in my 'couldn't finish' list and I read A LOT. I almost always plow through a book no matter what but it wasn't happening here. I think Hollis Gillespie has some talent hidden somewhere but I think the main problem, as I see it anyway, is she tried entirely TOO HARD. I got to page 97 before I gave up and the longest "chapter" was three pages. Okay great. Now, to put forth some humor in three pages isn't difficult. I can do that myself. But to put forth the humor and then try to turn it around into the most serious of situations and dispense what I assume is supposed to be life altering advice is insane in my eyes. I can save anyone looking to read the book for a chuckle the time right here and now. The funniest part, in all its glory, is right here: Our trailer wasn't so bad either. There was carpeting on the floor and blankets on the beds. But the front door was about as substantial as one you'd find on a kitchen cupcoard in a real house, and every step you took in the place made it shake like a boxcar, a constant and unwelcome testimony to its impermamnence. That's it folks, that's the best it gets in my opinion. I chuckled at that paragraph. I just don't see how someone can try to be their absolute funniest and then all of a sudden turn around and slam you with seriousness at its best. She writes about her fear of spiders and all of a sudden, true to form, she gets a life altering lesson from a neighbor with no legs to "step on it". From here on out I assume she stomps her fears away. She writes and laughs about her having fourteen car wrecks and then, can anyone guess? Gets real serious about her parents failed marriage and their inability to rebuild when "the damage around them matched the damage they felt inside." (This damage was supposed to be similar to the damage to her vehicles.) If this is good writing then I need to set aside an hour a day and start typing. Her other books are coming off my to-read list faster than any before it ever have. But.....to take a book off our to-read list is something that should not be done without significant thought. What if one day you want to read this book and cannot remember the title and in the end, cannot find the book? hahahahahahahahah
This book had a lot of short stories in it. So it was easy to put the book down and then come back to it at a later time. The author of this book also uses voice. I read this book before I read My Boyfriend Wrote a Book About Me so this is when I really began to pay attention to voice. I feel like the author used it appropriately because the book consisted of a lot of short stories put together. So I really could not imagine this book written without a good sense of voice to support it. The technique of voice could be used to show writers when it is appropriate to use voice as a writer. I think it is best used in books like these that share personal quirky short stories.
What do You think about Confessions Of A Recovering Slut: And Other Love Stories (2006)?
As a native Metro-Atlantan, I appreciate being reminded of the beauty of my hometown... specifically the crackheads and whores and prostitutes that litter the city. Hollis is the queen of "hook 'em with the first line" and has a knack for twisting painful circumstances into hilarity. I think I enjoyed this one even more than Bleachy-Haired-- she has several stories about becoming a mother, what I kept hoping for in the first. I like reading memoirs with lots of swearing and grit. If you do, too, then you should read this.
—Keely
Eh. This lady spends a maddening amount of time saying the same things over and over. It wouldn't be so bad if they were just abstract theories, but actually they are stories... things that happened to her in real life... you'd think that when writing a book (or two) you would be aware of the stories you did tell and did not. Maybe she had some amount of pages to fill in a publishing contract? Overall though, I did like some of the things she had to say and I enjoyed the liberal use of curse words in creative ways.
—S
