Joe Brainard's I Remember is a literary and artistic cult classic, praised and admired by writers from Paul Auster to John Ashery and Edmund White. As autobiography, Brainard's method was brilliantly simple: to set down specific memories as they rose to the surface of his consciousness, each prefaced by the refrain "I remember": "I remember when I thought that if you did anything bad, policemen would put you in jail." Brainard's enduring gem of a book has been issued in various forms over the past thirty years. In 1970, Angel Hair books published the first edition of I Remember, which quickly sold out; he wrote two subsequent volumes for Angel Hair, More I Remember (1972) and More I Remember More (1973), both of which proved as popular as the original. In 1973, the Museum of Modern Art in New York published Brainard's I Remember Christmas, a new text for which he also contributed a cover design and four drawings. Excerpts from the Angel Hair editions appeared in Interview, Gay Sunshine, The World and the New York Herald. Then in 1975, Full Court Press issued a revised version collecting all three of the Angel Hair volumes and added new material, using the original title I Remember. This complete edition is prefaced by poet and translator Ron Padgett.
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From Publishers Weekly
Out of print for a decade, these memoirs of the artist and writer who died of AIDS last year include a new afterword by Ron Padgett.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
16 of 17 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I just picked up a copy of "I Remember" at a Joe Brainard retrospective at the Berkeley Art Museum last weekend. All the warmth, humor and good-natured silliness of his art are here in these "poems"--1-3 sentence reminiscences that meander from his Tulsa childhood to sexual experiences in New York in the mid '60s. It's tempting to quote individual lines, but I'd best leave the writing to Brainard. Just dip in anywhere and follow the flow from objects to advertisements to remembrances of friends or incidents or walks, all woven together by the nostalgic refrain: "I remember . . . "
Brainard records impressions like a camera, not trying to make them mean. Without pretension or irony, he mananges to describe an America of a certain time and place more vividly than longer, more macho efforts to capture The American Experience. Brainard makes it seem easy, and he passes the fun on to you. Read, remember, enjoy.
Brainard records impressions like a camera, not trying to make them mean. Without pretension or irony, he mananges to describe an America of a certain time and place more vividly than longer, more macho efforts to capture The American Experience. Brainard makes it seem easy, and he passes the fun on to you. Read, remember, enjoy.
8 of 9 people found the following review helpful
By Jack_Hughes
Format:Paperback
Ah, this little book. "I Remember" is a tiny, funny, heart-warming masterpiece composed entirely of microscopic reflections and remembrances: but like the human body itself, which is of course made up of tiny microscopic cells, the book's one- and two-sentence units of "I remember this or that" recollections gradually build up into a living, breathing, singular human presence.
This book has also become a cult classic for writing instructors, as it often helps unlock a particular gate for students, enabling them to write about their own lives in an open, vivid, and funny way.
(Note to parents and subject-sensitive readers: the book does contain some frank discussions of sexuality, including gay sexuality. Although these passages are honest, humane, and often funny, occasionally they can be a little bit graphic (though not at all trying to be 'shocking' or 'offensive,' simply honest.) But it does mean that the book is not meant for very young readers. Use your judgement.)
Warm, intelligent, vivid, and screamingly funny. To read Joe Brainard is to love the man. We miss you, Joe.
This book has also become a cult classic for writing instructors, as it often helps unlock a particular gate for students, enabling them to write about their own lives in an open, vivid, and funny way.
(Note to parents and subject-sensitive readers: the book does contain some frank discussions of sexuality, including gay sexuality. Although these passages are honest, humane, and often funny, occasionally they can be a little bit graphic (though not at all trying to be 'shocking' or 'offensive,' simply honest.) But it does mean that the book is not meant for very young readers. Use your judgement.)
Warm, intelligent, vivid, and screamingly funny. To read Joe Brainard is to love the man. We miss you, Joe.
6 of 7 people found the following review helpful
By A Customer
Format:Paperback
Your reader from Florida was obviously unmoved by this book. A pity. In a poetic series of alternately charming, dry and sometimes tragic aphorisms Brainard constructs a personality from minutiae and individual bits of personal memorabilia. Both haunting and touching I found this to be an extremely gripping read. Any interested parties might be keen to know that a British version of this was published by the writer Gilbert Adair in his book Myths And Memories. It's not that bad, though not a patch on the original.
Most Recent Customer Reviews
2.0 out of 5 stars
Terribly Disappointing
I see no value at all in reading Brainard's reflections. I had hoped from the title that he would remember significant events that would be relevant to more than just himself. Read more
Published 2 months ago by Charles Jacobs
4.0 out of 5 stars
worth reading
I should note, first, that the book I received didn't have a cover that looked anything like the one shown (black and white photo). Read more
Published on December 8, 2008 by Chris Brenan
5.0 out of 5 stars
Poetry but not as you know it
One of the challenges facing us in the 21st century is that we have too many reading choices; each year (yes each year) around 320,000 books hit UK and USA bookstores alone. Read more
Published on July 26, 2008 by John
5.0 out of 5 stars
What a little gem.
The other reviewers here have already captured the elegant, loveable essence of this tiny classic. All I'm going to do is tell you how much I agree. Read more
Published on April 18, 2005 by delft_tile
5.0 out of 5 stars
Unsung but not forgotten
Yes, and we remember you, Joe. Lovely man (not that I ever knew the geezer) and the originator in this work of the Je me souviens format for which Georges Perec (of the... Read more
Published on June 3, 2003 by simon barrett
5.0 out of 5 stars
Brilliant!!!
I didn't think it could be done, but Joe Brainard has managed to keep me interested through a book-length poem! Read more
Published on April 6, 2002 by Cherelyn Marie Willet
3.0 out of 5 stars
A Great Handbook for 'Writers' Block'
I saw this book recommended by one of my favorite authors, Michael Cunningham (he wrote THE HOURS). Michael teaches a Creative Writing course at Columbia University and I'm sure... Read more
Published on January 31, 2002 by Michael J. Armijo
5.0 out of 5 stars
Unforgettable
Elegant in its simplicity, its genuine humility in face of all the splendors and confusions of American memory and life.
Published on May 30, 2001
5.0 out of 5 stars
different, innocent, inspiring, wonderful
When I read this book, I couldn't believe how simple but how moving it was. One of the lines that really sticks with me is " I remember James Dean in his red nylon... Read more
Published on June 30, 1999
2.0 out of 5 stars
Very weak writing. Joe Brainard's lazy prose and tidbits o
Brainard's prose continues to be lauded. Why? The New York School after O'Hara and Berrigan are awash in ennui and the banal, the boring remberences of schmmootz and who cares. Read more
Published on September 4, 1998
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