Customer Reviews

Mamarama: A Memoir of Sex, Kids, & Rock 'n' Roll

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Evelyn McDonnell's memoir has tattoo-inspired cover art, a title to rock your socks off, and a hook: How does a riot grrrl become a rebel mom? McDonnell weakly delivers on the premise, musing about reconciling your old self with your new (mom) identity, but it doesn't make for compelling reading. The story is a chronological account of boyfriends and bands of the moment, a nice people of 1990's nostalgia, a memory book for those people in between the Me Generation and Generation X, but little more. The reader might enjoy the bands, songs, and tales of travels around the world, but this is no end-all book about the rock n' roll motherhood.

McDonnell fancies herself a feminist and intellectual, but her memoir is weakly constructed and the conclusion is merely a rant against modern pop music superstars. I only recommend this memoir if you're looking to relive 1990's hipster life. Don't pick this up expecting to expand your mind.

I would suggest buying this book if you want to read about a modern hipster bumping shoulders with celebrities and making it as a writer in New York. If you don't want to listen to McDonnell drone on and on about her credentials and experiences as an East Villager, I would NOT buy it, seeing that this is what approximately 75% of the book focuses on.

This book doesn't even deliver what the title says it will. Rock 'n' Roll, sure. But kids? They don't even enter the picture until over halfway through the book, and her own child arrives much later than that. The sex? Nonexistent, unless you count two pages that discuss her three dates with a woman, or her casual mention of sex with her current husband or former lovers. The title makes it seem as though Mamarama is going to read as some sort of a diary/expose, which it is not. Even the word "memoir" is a stretch. A chronological account of McDonnell's life would be more accurate.

Kids change everyone's life. This is not a revolutionary concept. McDonnell's attempt to integrate her child(ren) into her former life is not a new struggle. She offers no unique perspective to the reader. Moreover, her cultural commentary on the backslide of feminism carries no weight whatsoever when she herself has had extraordinary success as a female writer in what she herself admits is a male-dominated industry, and has essentially attained everything she has ever wanted.

This book is nothing special. McDonnell, obviously, thinks she is something special. Unfortunately, her own book proves otherwise.

OK, so I'm not cool anymore (maybe I never was), but so what? I still have the NYC hip-hop 90's in me which means I can dance and groove when I get the chance. Mamarama is a reminder that the teenager/twenty-something/thirty-something in still in all of us moms. Music, art, deep thoughts, bad deeds, good deeds... all the things we had time for pre-kids are not the past. All you have to do is dig down a little below the everyday chaos to see it's all still there. As McDonnell puts it: 'A baby changes everything: Except your self.' Long live Mamarama!

"Mamarama is about changing the way we look at mothers, about realizing we are the cutting edge, the creators of the future." This book is thought-provoking and engrossing. All stories of motherhood carry a timeless core, an essence of this mind-boggling, mad and divine experience. Mamarama brings the timely to the timeless. The choices available to a human, a woman, a mother, a professional change moment to moment, year by year, decade to decade. Seen from the perspective of McDonell, who is not only an observer and chronicler of current US culture, but someone who has not been afraid to live fully within it, one stops to examine what choices you yourself are making. . . . and taking the precious moment to remind yourself to enjoy the ride.

You don't have to be an indie music lover, a feminist, a writer, a NYCophile, or a mom to connect with this book, but if you are any of those things, you will not be able to put it down. McDonnell's perspectives on American life and politics from the 70s on are enlightening and entertaining. She places the experiences of working, protesting, finding friends and cities, and finally mothering, in the larger social context of feminism in a personal and provocative way. I loved this book.

just finish this book and really enjoyed the journey.

love, love, love the author's writing, so cutting edge yet sophisticated and funny.

I felt like I was reading about my older sister. McDonnell brought back a lot of memories of growing up in the 70's, 80's and 90's. It was a lot of fun reading about how and where her life's path has taken her so far and always trying to stay true to herself. I look forward to reading GRAMARAMA??

I loved the music history in Evelyn's book as well as her own detailed experience through the first few decades of her life. I would love to read a sequel in about a decade...so much happening in the world and in the world of music. The two are inseparable; go hand in hand. I thought of Evelyn when Michael Jackson died....because of Mamarama.

I really enjoyed this engrossing memoir and coming-of-age tale. McDonnell is a likeable "protagonist," and her lively narrative, with musical references interspersed throughout, is entertaining and thought-provoking. McDonnell's remembrances of the East Village in the late 80s and beyond are especially poignant, as that New York really does no longer exist. The book was described to me as a "momoir," but that doesn't do it justice. Certainly McDonnell's experiences as a mother and a mother-figure to two stepdaughters are central to the book. But Mamarama is also about about love, art, culture, political expression, and feminine identity. I read this book over just two days, and highly recommend it.

its often difficult to put into words the experience of women and mothers of "my" generation...the challenge with traditional roles...the question on how far do we take feminism...how/when do we have families and continue with our careers as women of today....where do we align ourselves...this book is a MUST READ for anyone who has lived in ny, worked in music, had a kid, been challenged by all the choices before us...and really for anyone who wants a window into the life of a modern woman - today's mamarama