Customer Reviews

Between Panic and Desire (American Lives)

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
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This really isn't a memoir in the conventional sense--and thank God for that. This sad-yet-funny montage provides a number of poignant glimpses into the life of a writer and a country: whether he's writing about Irish-Americana, 9/11, dropping acid, or dysfunctional fathers, Dinty Moore is poignant, honest and ultimately hopeful. No matter how much you think your country is screwed up, or how much you think you've screwed up, or how much you think your family screwed you up, read Panic and Desire. By the time you finish it you'll realize life is better than you thought.

Dinty W. Moore has written a completely unexpected memoir. This series of linked essays (with a quiz thrown in here and there for good measure) follows the path of a single life through the cultural touchstones that that shaped all of us who are old enough to remember Nixon, Squeaky Fromme, and Mr. Greenjeans.

If you're not old enough to remember them, buy this for your father and write something on the inside flap like, "Thanks for not sending me hither and yon looking for a father figure, Dad!" Trust me. Next time you call home for money, you'll be glad that you did.

This is simply an amazing book: funny, accessible, poignant, avant garde, and silly all at the same time. It is an easy read, as it is organized in short, punchy chapters. If you were born in the 1950s or 60s, the book will be even more meaningful for you. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.

Early in his completely original and frequently hilarious memoir Between Panic & Desire, writer Dinty W. Moore learns that he has double vision. As a boy, he had just seen two of everything pretty much all of the time. That was his normal. Lucky for us, because Moore's singular way of looking back on his world--from families and marijuana, to Richard Nixon and the number nine (my personal favorite, number and chapter)--lets us witness more than just his personal history. Somehow Moore seems to see, simultaneously, what is funny and sad, momentous and fleeting, then and now. Between Panic & Desire is a trip worth taking. And I'd highly recommend letting Dinty W. Moore drive.

I don't share a great deal in common with Dinty Moore. I didn't grow up watching TV or obsessed with Richard Nixon, I haven't done drugs, I haven't been searching for a father figure, and I don't have a name that causes people to ask "is that your real name?" for example. But I enjoyed this short and readable book.

Moore uses creative chapters (quizzes, lists, imaginary conversations and interviews - using real quotes, etc.) to think about the role of perception and memory in our lives. It is an interesting stew - sorry, had to do it - of pop culture, sociology, psychology, commentary, criticism, and memoir.

If you have ever wondered what creative non-fiction meant, Moore - who teaches it - offers a good example in his latest book.

I first met Dinty while reading The Accidental Buddhist and was captivated by his style. I bought Between Panic and Desire as soon as it came out and learned that he is living my life five years in the future. I'm looking forward to his next work to see how my life turns out.

Moore's fine sense of rhythm and wit carries us through this brief memoir. Under a stylish veil of humor and irony, Moore explores the universal human search for balance between panic and desire.

Or perhaps that should be "a gorgeously surprising memoir." Inventive in form, carefully beautiful in language, funny, unexpected, heartbreaking, amusing, filial, universal... this is not just a good read but a terrific choice for book groups or just sharing with a friend. If you've had a father, if you haven't had a father, if you are a father, or if you just know what it's like to be stuck between Panic and Desire (the real towns, or just the states of being), this is a book for you. Unreservedly recommended.

Moore, the master of literary nonfiction, brings the reader into the moments that make up a life (a memoir) and explodes the meaning of them from the inside out allowing readers to glimpse reflections of their own lives refracted in the shattered glimmering fallout of a story (structured in experiential, experimental segments) well told.

My former English professor has given the reader a peek into the convoluted journey of life -- thus compelling the reader to ask, Is that all there is? Give us more! At times funny or curious, at times deep, Between Panic and Desire satisfies the reader with its keen writing style.