dire:
Emily Books
Welcome to the blogging contingency of Emily Books, which is owned & operated by Ruth Curry & Emily Gould! We sell weird books by women.
Welcome to the blogging contingency of Emily Books, which is owned & operated by Ruth Curry & Emily Gould! We sell weird books by women.
dire:
“ On the deepest level in my gut, I knew she was not coming. How could she come? It was ridiculous. Idealistic. Flighty. Fantasy. But she’d told me she’d gotten a driver, and she would leave the city around ten a.m. I had to take her at her word. Though I’d possibly be cooler, more authentic, if I didn’t scrub the toilet and change my books around so the obscure ones would show. ”
- Chloe Caldwell, “Hungry Ghost” from I’ll Tell You In Person
You can almost hear Chloe Caldwell’s voice when you read these essays (CoffeeHouse & Emily Books, out October 4)—her warm, earnest tone as she describes her love for Lena Dunham, ill-fated relationship with an older man, problems with heroin and acne, and working in a jewelry shop on Bleecker Street. As Caldwell relates her memories and struggles, misadventures and successes, readers will sympathize and see themselves in the vulnerable and flawed, yet ultimately charming narrator.
Have you read I’ll Tell You In Person yet? Get it here!
“ Everything I wanted and tons of opportunities were in front of my face, but I didn’t understand how to take them. On Gchat I told my dad I was having a hard time, and he said, Anywhere is a prison if you let it be. ”
- Chloe Caldwell, “Berlin 2009″ from I’ll Tell You In Person
I’ll Tell You In Person made Flavorwire’s Books to Read This October list!
It’s focused on twentysomething misbehavior, and at early moments felt like a romp through consequence-free white privilege. Yet the cumulative effect snuck up on me, and eventually won me over entirely. From drugs, eating issues and nights of pranks and partying, the book builds and evolves into something more, a poignant exploration of leaving youth behind and finding the things — and most importantly, the people — that will make you content as an adult, including perspective on your memories and mistakes.
“ I got a pedicure each time I promised myself I’d stop doing heroin—which is to say, I got pedicures that whole summer. Pedicures gave me the false notion I was about to get my shit together. I wasn’t functioning well—my brain cells were spent, and my serotonin was depleted. Sitting despondent in a vinyl chair was as good as it got. ”
- Chloe Caldwell, “Soul Killer” from I’ll Tell You In Person
In the valedictory essay of her new collection, I’ll Tell You in Person, Chloe Caldwell recounts a trip to Berlin during which she attends a street rally. She’s proud to have punctuated her otherwise aimless stay with meaning, only to realize she’s unclear as to the protest’s cause.
If this isn’t an encapsulation of twentysomething meandering, I don’t know what is. Caldwell’s reputation as a chronicler of just that experience gets another nudge from her new book — this following an earlier glittery essay collection,Legs Get Led Astray, and an autobiographical novella, praised by Lena Dunham, about falling in love with a woman. I’ll Tell You reads like a coda to her years spent bouncing from city to city, job to job, and BFF to BFF. “I was always aware that this time would prove fleeting, and felt I had to try different things,” Caldwell, who turned thirty this year, tells the Voice. “Eventually I decided to build a life because I didn’t have anything. I didn’t have a lamp.”
You can get I’ll Tell You In Person here.
“ The liberating thing about publishing an essay collection before you are a fully formed person is that there is nothing to fear. You have no readers. No experience. No memories of doing it before. No wounds. The bad thing about publishing an essay collection at twenty-five, when the frontal lobe has barely finished developing, is there is nothing to fear. No readers. No experience. No memories of doing it before. No wounds. ”
- Chloe Caldwell, “In Real Life” from I’ll Tell You In Person
“ JUST BEFORE CHRISTMAS a couple of years ago, I made plans with a person whom I deeply admire. I won’t say who but I’ll say this: she’s somewhere on the spectrum between Eileen Myles and Beyoncé. You probably admire her too—or you might hate her and think she’s fat. Regardless, she is a Celebrity with a capital C. ”
- Chloe Caldwell, “Hungry Ghost” from I’ll Tell You In Person
“Chloe Caldwell is a force. A quirky writer who shares personal details of her life and describes them in a way that never feels like TMI, it’s the opposite. You want more, the result of a trustworthy narrator and a skilled storyteller.”
Get I’ll Tell You In Person today!