Because I Was Flesh

Rating:
Summary: best american memoir
Review: I read this book a week ago and still find myself under its spell. Dahlberg's descriptions of his mother are some of the strangest passages in American literature. You can tell that Dahlberg was a bit of a misanthrope (about him, see Harper's Magazine February 2003 issue), but at the same time the honesty of the prose (despite the almost epic tone and admittedly convulted vocabulary) really captures the weight of everyday life. This book deserves to be much more famous than it is.

Rating:
Summary: The Flesh--it binds us eternally
Review: The first time that I read this book, I really enjoyed it. The second time, I was overwhelmed by its richness and beauty. Dahlberg is able to awaken language with golden ideas of how he sees the world. The story, though painful at times is wonderfully executed. Dahlberg allows his reader to see life as Edward Dahlberg percieved it when he was a child, and then later as a grown man. He's definitely an author who has received little attention, though he deserves so much more. His work, though challenging is fulfilling. And though it is hard to locate, another work of his, "Can These Bones Live," is another wonderfully written work. He takes on all of the writers of his time, and tells them exactly what he thinks about them. Read! Read! Read!

Rating:
Summary: Powerful and strange
Review: This is a remarkable book. While I thought the prose was uneven ... at times outstanding, at times merely recondite (that's one of Dahlberg's words) and at times strange, the underlying story is one of the most moving and beautiful around.

The source of the beauty may be its honesty. Dahlberg refuses to be a victim or hate people who've done horrible things to him. (He's no chump, either.)

It's a tough read, and you may need a dictionary on hand (I did), but a worthwhile experience.