Kristin HershRezensionen

There is no other voice like Kristin Hersch's- in music or written form. I loved this band since I first heard them in 1987 and reading this took me back to a time when weirdos hung together and being different was still threatening. I have always been curious about her lyrics and life so this was a treat.

Beautifully written and so different than anything I have ever read.

Kristin Hersh's 'Paradoxical Undressing' made me laugh out loud and cry in public. In the same chapter — I mean that in a good way. I also love her music.

‘Going away is my only real talent. Betty’s right: I’m a reluctant performer...not a performer at all. I need to go away so the song can play itself.’

Paradoxical Undressing is a memoir by Kristin Hersh, the lead singer and guitarist from Throwing Muses, based on a diary she kept at the age of eighteen. She was very bright as a teenager, forming a band at fourteen and going to university at fifteen. The book is about one year in her life, around the time her band started to become well-known and were offered a record deal, when she began to suffer from mental illness and was diagnosed with schizophrenia and then bipolar. It is about her life as a musician, her creativity and the way she experiences the world, and explores in a very personal and fascinating way the boundaries between mental illness and artistic talent.

First, I have to tell you that this book is very funny. Despite what you may expect given the subject matter, it’s not miserable or self-pitying in any way; it’s above all an amusing read written in an idiosyncratic and passionate voice. From her time living in an empty apartment along with constantly arguing tribes of painters and musicians and a mysterious Animal none of them have ever seen, to an art therapy class full of hippies she attends at university, this book is full of entertaining scenes. Her observations and her turn of phrase really made me laugh.

It is also quite inspiring because, even as a teenager, Kristin Hersh was so dedicated to her work and sure of her own vision. I found it really interesting to read about how a shy person who already sometimes feels uncomfortable with others would choose to perform in such an emotional and intense way on stage. It seems as if, in Kristin Hersh’s case, the expression of the song itself is what matters to her, not that she (as a person) is communicating with the audience. If she manages to lose herself, the song is expressed through her, whether the audience is there or not.

Around this time, Kristin begins to experience frightening hallucinations and becomes isolated and out of touch with the world. She describes how she heard music constantly and couldn’t escape from it, suffered from terrible insomnia, and saw snakes and bees which she later describes as sound-images, suggesting that her illness is linked to her creativity. The music in her head seems to have been caused by an accident some time previously in which she was knocked off her bike by a woman in a car (who she sees as either a good or a bad witch), experienced concussion and was given the gift or curse of hearing songs. However, during her breakdown the music seems to become more intrusive and unbearable. She also sees these songs as evil or coming from an evil part of her, which she doesn’t control. However (and this is where the book is interesting about the madness/creativity boundary), once she has recovered from this extended manic episode, she is able to stop taking her medication and her symptoms seem to become less threatening, even though they are still there to some extent. She begins to see them as part of her as a musician rather than something that threatens to ruin her life.

One scene from the book I liked was when she went to see a psychiatrist who was very perceptive and was the first person who thought her explanation of the ‘snake’ in her bag as a ‘sound-image’ made sense. I liked what he said to her: ‘Art and dreams are very closely related and they’re worth listening to, as long as your hold on reality remains intact.’ It’s also interesting that she finds the sympathy and attention of the doctors to be a more important contribution than medication to her recovery:

‘This may be the real medicine they offer and it’s powerful. I watch them administer both their drugs and their kindness and the kindness seems just as effective to me, if not more so. Chemicals in the form of medication are interesting, ham-fisted tools, but humans themselves engage in myriad processes we haven’t yet measured. We really are a deeply social species.’ [2011]

Really really really liked. A lot.

Rarely has a book been so ill-served by its title or by its American cover, a spare drawing of a worried young woman by Gilbert Hernandez after Charles Burns. The teenage narrator of "Rat Girl" doesn't waste a lot of time in apprehension, and she doesn't hang out with rats, much, alhough a snake makes a significant appearance. She's brave, naîve, wildly creative, and mostly upbeat—someone everybody would be better off knowing, even if they couldn't keep up with her for more than an hour in real life.

Based on a journal kept during the year before the release of the first Throwing Muses album, "Rat Girl" is a powerful and often hilarious portrait of a young artist like no other. Gifted (or cursed) with synesthesia and a sense of being literally possessed by sounds that have their own will and demand expression, young Kristin alternates between attending community college and living in squats. Her best friend at college is an aged movie queen, once on the cover of all the national magazines. Her father, remote in the book as one senses he was remote all through her childhood, is a hippie professor she calls "Dude." In the wee hours, Kristin stays up with her battered guitar, exorcising the music that will only torment her if not released. Her band plays clubs they're not allowed to attend; they are paid so little that it often costs them to play. One senses she'd be happy enough to go on like this forever, but life has its own plans and demands some tough choices.

The adult Hersh captures the voice of her young self so perfectly that it takes close reading to realize that the book wasn't merely channeled. Key details are revealed just when the reader needs to know them, and never before. Other characters' voices are perfectly rendered, sometimes sophisticated, occasionally wise, always unique to the person speaking. Although based on a journal, and firmly grounded in the perspective of the journal keeper, the book reads like the work of an assured author with several novels behind her. It's an amazing achievement.

I wish I could have taken this book for Kristin Hersh to sign when I met her after her talk at the Writer's Festival last weekend. It is a library book, I reckon she would have liked the idea. It speaks to me too, as what I got her to sign (her new book/CD) wasn't about having the signature, it was about meeting her and saying hi. I am also quite glad I hadn't read her book before meeting her as I would have had the weight of her story on me. It is a strange thing to know lots of stuff about someone who doesn't know you.

Anyway, the book about a year in her life is wonderful. I cannot give it 5/5 though because I feel angry at it for being so compulsive :) I carried it around the house with me just in case I could catch a minute, or less, to read a few words here and there. That's how I know I am on to something good. I desperately crave a few minutes to read it, and I take it everywhere in case such an opportunity presents itself (including out in the car- in case I am involved in a traffic jam, or some unforeseen situation which results in time to spare). How the last person who had this book out took so long with it I don't know.......½

I discovered Throwing Muses in college, just a couple of years after the events of this book. This is a fascinating look at the life of lead singer Kristin Hersh, during the year her band was starting to take off. Back then, I read article after article about how she "heard" songs and how her amazing lyrics were not her own conscious creation, this book goes into fascinating detail about that - and about how life is like for someone struggling with undiagnosed bipolar disorder.

interesting prose about youth, music, mental illness and becoming a mother. dig it.

A smart, engaging memoir that includes bipolar disorder, music, and much more. Smart writing and choice of details make this a literary memoir of greater interest than many reports of mental illness. Plus it's by Kristin Hersh of Throwing Muses. Plus it's fun to revisit all those Rhode Island and Boston venues and think about what I was doing there while Kristin was doing what she was doing.

I'll start by being honest: I picked up this book as a filler, fully expecting to read it once and never think about it again. It was an Early Reviewer book that I've bee neglecting reviewing for years (the shame!). I had no idea who Kristin Hersh was, and had never heard of Throwing Muses. With that said, I really enjoyed this book. The way Hersh writes is unbelievably light and refreshing for a memoir, especially considering the material she's talking about: manic depression, homelessness, teen pregnancy, etc. I've never read a memoir, and perhaps even a book of fiction, from which the narrator viewed the world in such a simple, beautiful way. I really enjoyed how she talked about her relationship with music, how it was something out of her control, something that demanded to be expressed. When I first noticed that she interspersed song lyrics throughout the prose, I was disheartened. In my experience that kind of stuff usually plays the role of filler, having very little actual relevance to the story. But in this case, each song snippet served to highlight what was happening at that moment. It was almost like looking at an illustration, because it seemed like just another way to look at what was going on, but through Kristin's eyes. At first glance, her voice seems so naive, and yet as the reader gets to know the book-Hersh better, it becomes apparent that its not naivete at all, but a kind of accidentally enlightened understanding of the world around her and the people that inhabit it. It's not unbelievable the way she describes things, but instead devastatingly hopeful. Even through the terror and doubt of finding out you're pregnant, she describes the baby as a light inside of her that she doesn't want to go out. What I liked most about this memoir is the way it was written. It's vague in some places and explicit in others. You never find out who the father of the baby is. In fact, you never even read about Kristin thinking about men really. But somehow, that information isn't important. It's Hersh's book, it's Hersh's way of telling her story, and I wouldn't have it any other way. A true joy to read, this book will change the way we think about memoirs.

I used to be a huge fan of Kristen Hersh's early music, and reading more about her experiences and struggles brought the feeling of her music back to me. Kristen has led a complicate and creative life, and she brings some humor and a lot of insight into her struggles with mental illness. Although this book focuses mainly on one year in Kristen's life, when she was diagnosed with bipolar disorder, she wove in her personality and poignant life experiences in a way that gave a deeper understanding to some of her solo work. The writing style (based on her diaries) was at times annoying and difficult to stick with, the story was worth it.

Al meer dan twintig jaar luister ik naar de muziek van Kristin Hersh, eerst toen zij in Throwing Muses speelde en later ook als soloartiest. Vorig jaar zag ik op librarything.nl dat dit boek van haar hand was verschenen. Eerder dit jaar kreeg ik het te leen van D., die het als trouwe Throwing Musesfan voor zijn verjaardag had gekregen. Lees verder op deze pagina van mijn boekenblog.

I really enjoyed reading this book. It made me want to find out more about the bipolar condition, about Kristin Hersh, about Throwing Muses, about Providence, about synaesthesia and having babies. I suppose one measure of a good book is that it makes you interested in stuff. I saw Kristin Hersh recently, talking about this book (which in the UK is called Paradoxical Undressings, but Rat Girl in the States) and singing songs referred to in the book. I loved listening to her talk and especially her music and was keen t read the book afterwards.

It's an autobiography based on Hersh's diaries and memories from her days in the Throwing Muses and describes episodes from the gigs they played, people they knew, places they lived and the first album they made while Hersh was pregnant. I love the way Hersh writes without pity for herself whilst also writing about some pretty difficult times. Her insomnia and mania are reported matter of factly and the 'evil' of the songs which took over her after she was run over are made less hard to read because of this.

When I heard her speak that evening, the possibility of her writing more wS discussed. She said she found writing more captivating than she had expected and maybe more writings would be on their way, possibly fiction. I can't wait.

Reminds me a lot of Woolf's cautionary tale (in A Room of One's Own, her story of "Shakespeare's Sister"): that, however hard it is to be an artist, however hard it is to deal with your problems, both struggles become even harder yet when you find yourself pregnant at eighteen.

"Now I know I'll never be numb again. A mother is condemned to feel everything forever."

This memoir was absolutely interesting and I couldn't stop reading. Hersh tells the story of the formation and progress of her band, the Throwing Muses; her struggle with mental illness, and her experience being pregnant and trying to balance her life as a student, musician, and teen.

Hersh's writing style is quirky and engaging. The way she uses words illustrates her talent as a lyricist, as her writing is musical and poetic. Although Hersh leaves out what some might consider important details (such as the situation with her parents (step-parents?) and the identity of her child's father), I feel that this was a good decision since it allows Hersh to take all the responsibility for her actions and shows how independent and self-assured she was as a young woman fending for herself.

Her descriptions of the ways she experienced her bipoloar disorder were especially interesting. It is true that mental illness is experienced differently by different people, however, this is the most unique description I've ever read. Because she is a musician, her illness is filtered through her musician's brain and results in manic flashes of songs, which she painstakingly memorizes, writes down, and eventually plays in the frenetic style of Throwing Muses.

Very engaging, readable, and humorous. Hersh never takes herself too seriously, never displays an inflated sense of self, and takes the world on her own terms, never apologizing for the choices she made.

Lastly, I enjoyed the cover illustration by one of our best underground comics writers, gilbert hernandez of los bros hernandez. And to round out the experience, Hersh has included a link to free downloads of a special session of her playing songs mentioned in the book.

This is a memoir about one tumultuous year in Kristin Hersh's life. In 1985 her band, Throwing Muses, was just taking off when she was diagnosed with bipolar disorder. Medication helped control the (vividly described) chaos in her brain, but that chaos was also part of her creative process. To further complicate things, she discovered she was pregnant, and needed to figure out how to stay physically and mentally healthy while still being able to write and play music. The story is interspersed with really interesting passages describing her childhood growing up on a commune with hippie parents. Oh - and in college she became friends with actress Betty Hutton (yeah, that Betty Hutton) which provides a lot of funny stories. The writing is dreamy and frenzied, raw and touchingly honest, and it matches the lyrics scattered throughout the book that illustrate the events she's describing.
This book is a fan's dream come true, but you don't need to be a fan or know anything about Kristin Hersh to enjoy this beautifully written book.

I tried really hard to get into this book since I got it as an Early Reviewer, but I just couldn't. Part of the problem, I guess, is that I had never heard of Kristin Hersh, so I couldn't figure out why I was supposed to care about her; also the different fonts and different forms (diary entries and song lyrics) and the bizarre concentration on Betty Hutton (even though it really happened) just distracted me. Maybe I should try again another time.

For a debut novel, Kristin Hersh does a decent job with Rat Girl. I think the main issue with this memoir is that it is very unpolished. However, that may be the way that Hersh wanted her memoir to feel, especially considering the subject matter. Plus, considering that her band, Throwing Muses, and the genre of music that they are is unpolished, this may just be par for the course.

For me, I will say that my favorite parts were the ones where she wrote about her friendship with Betty Hutton. Hersh really made Hutton pop from the pages. When I finished the book I didn't care to know much more about Kristin Hersh, but I DID immediately start going to look for movies and music of Betty Hutton's. So, for that, I am grateful. This memoir introduced me to a lively spirit in Betty Hutton. It's sad that Hersh couldn't make herself sparkle and shine on the pages of her own memoir over a side character, no matter how important Hutton was to her.

I believe that fans of Kristin Hersh or Throwing Muses will enjoy this memoir far more than someone like me who came into the memoir knowing nothing at all. I'm guessing that it got sent to me due to my love of Joe Meno books and their ilk, but that is neither here nor there. This is an average memoir at best. A second reading may change my mind, but as of now unless you are a superfan, until her work seems more polished and focused, this might be a memoir to skip.

Kristin Hersh is one of the few people whose memoir I would want to read. I tend to hate the genre. And musicians in particular are not my favorite subject. But I have loved Kristin Hersh and her sister Tanya Donelly ever since my college days, and have been fascinated by their relationship, Hersh's bipolar issues, and their evolution as women as seen through their music.

So I was thrilled to score a copy of Rat Girl from Librarything's early reviewers program--and so disappointed to find it just another memoir, unfocused and unedited. I just couldn't stay interested. I guess I expected more because I love her music so much, but even she couldn't elevate a genre I pretty much detest.

Hersh's memoir concentrates on the year she was 18. Her rock band Throwing Muses was finally seeing some success--was there a recording deal on the horizon?--she is treated for manic depression, and she becomes pregnant. From the sleazy bars where the band performs, to the hospital, to Napoleon's creepy room where she crashes, to Boston where they get their break, Hersh paints her life in stunning prose. Most searing is the way she depicts being confronted by her music. It haunts her, beginning as raw sound then slowly evolving into chord progressions with lyrics. "It was all so irresistibly colorful. Every chord I heard carried with it the impression of a color; these colors blended along with the chords in gentle swathes of sound-light. Each beat had a shape that appeared and then disappeared instantly, creating its own visual pattern that coincided with the rhythm. I watched and listened, bewildered and enthralled, as sound and color filled my empty hospital room." Writing like this, along with a vanful of interesting characters (her band-mates, and Betty Hutton!), makes a fascinating study of growing up with an indie rock band in the mid-80's.½

As a fan (but not a superfan) of Kristin Hersh and Throwing Muses, I was happy to receive Rat Girl. Unfortunately, I just can't get into it. Maybe I'm not in the right frame of mind and I'll like it better later, but for now I'm setting it aside only half finished. The descriptions of how Kristin feels while she plays and writes music are really interesting, but I can't stop my mind from wandering away during other stretches. Diary style novels and memoirs are usually right up my alley, but this time I'm not getting it. I'm glad some people love it, though.

Kristin Hersh's memoir, Rat Girl, follows the year during which her band, Throwing Muses, was poised to record their first album and reach beyond beyond their cult club status, she is diagnosed as bipolar, and she finds that she is pregnant. It sounds like a lot to cover, but Hersh skillfully meshes the threads of her story in a compelling narrative, which ALSO includes, of all things, her friendship with Betty Hutton (yes, THE Betty Hutton). They are introduced by her father, a "hippie" college professor, and bond in class and in the library bathroom. Oddly fascinating, but not distracting. Somehow it ALL fits. Most interesting, though, are the incredibly vivid passages in which Kristin describes the sounds, colors, and kinetics of the music that alternatively charms, frightens, inspires, and stalks her. After her bipolar diagnosis, the reader wonders, right along with Hersh, whether "getting well" means losing the music. A teriffic read and a real testament to the support that Hersh has in her bandmates (including her sister Tea).

I didn't like this book at first but it picked up. I just feel like it was trying too hard; every sentence had to be screaming with wit.

I came to this book with low expectations. I had just read Joe Jackson's memoir & thought it was awful: pretentious, unfocused, and worst of all utterly boring. I love Hersh's music, just as I love Jackson's, and was worried that she, too, maybe in different ways, wouldn't have written a book I found readable.

I was completely wrong to worry. This book quickly became unputdownable and ended up being one of my few 5-star books. Hersh's narrative, based on the diary she kept at 18 and the lyrics of her songs, has a grace, a power, an immediacy that I've found in few other writers. There's horror here but humor, too, and through it all there's music and the wonderful and mundane things that insprire it.

One of the things both wonderful (by which I mean a thing of wonder, as opposed to something very good) and mundane that Hersh's book deals with is mental illness. I won't give the story away, but Hersh treats this topic with a gorgeous complexity. At one point she writes, "I know psychiatry is a science, but how do you measure a systemic effect like soul sickness in a cold, flat room? It was messy, huge; a muscular panic. It actually felt more like . . . art" (Hersh's ellipses, 228).

There's also a beautiful set of friendships detailed here, between the members of Throwing Muses, between Hersh and former actress Betty Hutton, between Hersh and the beige boy, and others. Hersh has produced an exceptional book. I really hope she continues in this form.

(Thank you to Hersh, to Penguin, & to Sonia & LibraryThing for giving me this amazing and unusual reading experience.)

Rat Girl is the story of Kristin Hersh, lead singer for Throwing Muses. What's a throwing muse? She is.
In her introduction she says: "I'm not a particularly creative person, nor am I interested in self-expression." So why is she writing a memoir? I'm still not really sure.
But occasionally, while reading her memoir, I was reminded of Dave Eggers' A Heart-Breaking Work of Staggering Genius. Rat Girl was sort of everything that ...Genius wasn't. It wasn't literary or even remotely pretentious (not that I think that ...Genius was, but I know of a lot of people who do). But what I liked about Rat Girl was not all of the things that it wasn't. We already have a heart-breaking work. We don't need another one.
And so what Kristin Hersh gives us is her pivotal year when she struggled with music, mental-illness stigmas, record deals and being pregnant.
What's strange is that none of these things are really what the story is about. They all just sort of happen.
Hersh interacts and creates and thinks about music in such a unique way. She says, "I absolutely did not invent them," about her songs. She says the same thing about her baby and probably thinks the same thing about this book.