Customer Reviews

More Towels: In Between the Notes

5 star:		(16)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Before he became a writer, Grant Jarrett spent years of his life as a musician. Not just any musician, but specifically as the much less heralded younger brother of a famous and respected jazz pianist. For any jazz fans out there, you can easily figure out who big brother is. Two striking things about this book are apparent once you're finished with it though. One: Grant admirably doesn't trade on his brother's name here. This book really isn't about being a younger sibling to someone in the spotlight. His brother is merely incidental, because this memoir is much more about a young man struggling to find his niche. Two: It's because of sheer talent as a writer and his acerbic wit that Jarrett is able to pull off this sometimes unflattering peek inside his life.

Jarrett begins the memoir as a teenage drummer when he leaves home on his first big gig. What follows is an often hilarious and sometimes wrenching journey as he travels across the country wearing cringe- worthy ruffled shirts, boozing, and playing more women than music. As he bounces from band to band and woman to woman, one of the things that helps elevate this book above barroom, glory-days chatter is Jarrett's uncanny ability to be brutally honest with the reader (and himself); not just about his poor sartorial choices and sometimes lacking musical skills, but also about his personal choices and actions. He has a sharp wit, and he turns that weapon as mercilessly upon himself as anyone else in the memoir. He's sometimes too hard on himself, so that when he's berating himself for his unsavory behavior, the reader still feels a sympathetic pull for him. This works because he's not only charming and funny, but he's never really bad so much as just plain lost.

He was growing up and moving on in these years. He was often struggling and flailing about, unable to hit the peaks of musicianship he hoped for while clearly searching for someone to accept him for what he was. But with the publication of this memoir, Grant decisively proves that the talent in the Jarrett family flows in more than one direction, and that even though music wasn't his calling, it provided hysterical and touching fodder for unleashing his gifts.

There were a few sections of this book that touched me in a way that surprised me. Jarrett's reaction to his grandmother's death was one, his description of his girfriend at her brother's funeral was another. There were other touching moments too, but then this is a book of moments, moments that paint a picture of a desperately unhappy man coming to terms with his limitations as a musician and as a human being. In the second half of the book Jarrett's inner turmoil starts to seep to the surface and he begins to act out in more dangerous ways. As others have noted this is a very very funny book, but it is also an honest account of one musician's efforts to come to terms with his internal demons.

Couldn't put this book down! I love this guy! We all know how whacky navigating life's curves through our 20's can be. Jarrett never misses a beat banging his/our funny bone as he romps through his musical career from one bed/bandstand to another with the lust and whimsy of a modern day drumming Tom Jones (not the singer, silly.) Grant has in his wit, humor, and headlong lust for laughs/loins what his Famous Brother has for improvising melody - vibrant genius. BUY THIS BOOK!

The first time this book embarrassed me was in my doctor's office. I was in the waiting room with three or four other people when I laughed so hard my gum shot across the room. The second time was at a restaurant on my lunch hour. I made the mistake of trying to continue to read once the laughter began and I actually wet myself - and no, I do not have a history of bladder control problems. And no, I am not going to use my name in this review. This is a very funny book, just be careful where you read it.

While I certainly wouldn't want Grant Jarrett dating a friend or family member, I'm glad he wrote this book. In addition to being a musician, Jarrett is, or was, a chronic womanizer whose lechery apparently knew no bounds. Although this alone would not make a particularly interesting book, the humor, the writing, the attitude and the self-effacing honesty in "More Towels" make it an exceptionally enjoyable memoir. Some of my favorite chapters were "Dishonorable Discharge," wherein Jarrett fears he may have a social disease, "I like Television," in which he dates a woman with a heart condition that could make sex a fatal act, and "Sex, drugs, and take me to the hospital," which describes his first (and hopefully his only) experience with drugs. And there are many more. If you have a sense of humor you will laugh and if you have a heart you'll feel for this unhappy young musician. But keep him away from your family.

There are two things that set this memoir apart from many others I've read: humor and real writing talent. That is not to say that I haven't enjoyed a lot of memoirs, several by musicians, it is just to say that MORE TOWELS has more to offer, for my tastes at least. HOLLYWOOD ANIMAL really failed to make me care, and Sting's book was interesting but not entirely engaging. Like most people's lives, memoirs often lack a traditional arc, and this is true of More Towels, but Jarrett has natural writing skill and a fantastic sense of humor, and he is so self-deprecating that, between laughs, you find yourself rooting for him. My only complaint about the book is that we have no idea how he made the leap from musician to writer. There are at least ten years unaccounted for. In spite of that minor glitch, I loved the book and recommend it highly.

I am an avid reader, and I particularly enjoy good memoirs and biographies, but I have been frustrated repeatedly by writers who gloss over the experiences that embarrass them and focus on those they're proud of. Grant Jarrett gains you sympathy through honesty and a fantastic sense of humor. He shares the worst of himself without apology and laughs at himself as the reader does. He has a breezy writing style that is perfect for the material and yet he can make you feel for him and some of his "victims" when he wants to. I'd love to see more from this skilled author.

The demons driving this gifted author sprout from his own obsessive perfectionism. The author's 'voice' has a way of echoing within the reader's head long after finishing this book.

Even in the midst of his angst, Jarrett's ever-present hyper-awareness comes shining through. The struggle to master the drums was just an obvious-to-everyone-but-himself metaphor for his struggles to master and control his own inner life. His travails were no more, and no less, than any man's...but in his acute, preternatural AWARENESS of every minute detail of those struggles does he find the raw materials for this entertaining, troubling memoir.

Growing up in the shadow of a famous brother(s), and living with the emptiness due to a shadowy father, Jarrett had his work cut out for him. It is every reader's good fortune that he finally chose as his trade that of putting pen to paper.

This book could have been more aptly titled "Confessions of a Dangerous Mind", had that title not been so recently used for a far, far inferior Hollyweird farce. No, Jarrett's farce is one of the best...

Yes, "More Towels" is an incredibly funny book, but I think what's so special about it is that, although Jarrett sometimes behaved deplorably, he seems somehow decent and likeable. I actually found myself feeling sorry for him a few times even though he refused to justify or defend any of his behavior. There are chapters that will make you laugh so hard your stomach will ache, but there is also another side to the book. Most compelling was the second half, where you watch as Jarrett unravels emotionally. He keeps you laughing but you know that there is pain at his center. I hope there's more to come from this talented writer.

I laughed so hard think I pulled a muscle in my groin. Grant Jarrett is a very funny guy, but what i think is special about this book is the odd mix of humor and pathos and the fact that he succeeded in making me care about a pretty unlikable guy - sort of a Sam Malone with a brain and a bad attitude. Great book.