For You, For You I Am Trilling These Songs [Paperback]

Kathleen Rooney (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 15, 2009

In this collection about life as a twentysomething in the twenty-first century, Kathleen Rooney writes with the finesse of someone well beyond her years, but with fresh insights that reveal a girl still making discoveries at every turn. Varied and original, the tales in For You, For You I Am Trilling These Songs recount the perils of falling in love with the unlikeliest of people, of visiting the New York apartments of a vanished poet, and of touring an animal retirement home with her parents. Of getting a Brazilian wax, and of chauffeuring a U.S. senator around town. Of saying good-bye to a cousin who’s joining a convent, and of trying to convince herself that she's not wasting her life. This is a book about love and longing, poetry and plagiarism, death and democracy, mountain floods and Midwestern cicadas. Here is a young woman struggling to find her place as an adult and a citizen in an America that rarely manages to live up to Whitman’s dream of it. With this book, Rooney sings—yes, in fact, she trills—loud and clear.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In this smart, subtly honed set of 11 autobiographical essays, Rooney, a 20-something Chicago native, teacher of writing, and U.S. Senate aide, seems poised for a really good revelation but never quite delivers. Riffing on subjects as diverse as getting a Brazilian bikini wax on the eve of her marriage (a huge gender betrayal for this self-described feminist); making a pilgrimage to the sites inhabited by a favorite poet, Weldon Kees, in New York City; and feeling pleased by the flirtations of her students at a small religious college in Washington State, the author chronicles the years of her early professional youth as she and her novelist husband move from job to job, from Chicago to Tacoma, Wash., and back. Rooney is well read and has a wily, understated style, as she describes her Christian parents; trying to teach her younger Senate interns how to execute metaphors and good manners; and resisting the urge to go from being a fun-time happy party girl drinking with guy friends at McSorley's Ale House in New York City to being a total bitch when having to complain of a man's drunken importunate groping. The last, and most substantial, essay, involving her cousin Jennifer's decision to become a nun, underscores the author's overall longing to attain a validated life, rooted in mission and meaning. But in the end, the essays leave the reader hungry for more substance. (Jan.)
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From Booklist

Poet Rooney’s essay collection captures the poignancy and absurdity of life at the turn of the twenty-first century. In a series of vignettes both humorous and somber, Rooney regales readers with stories ranging from the perils of a Brazilian wax to her pilgrimage to New York to visit the dwellings of the missing poet Weldon Kees. Her other adventures include working for a U.S. senator and teaching at a small religious college out west. Rooney is drawn to the unlikely parade of characters that march through each world she visits, falling a little bit in love with everyone from her supervisor in the Senate office to the mysterious Kees. Echoing Joan Didion’s The White Album, Rooney’s personal essays turn into a freeze-frame of life in the U.S. at particular moments. Fortified by her husband, Rooney navigates the trials and tribulations of daily life as she carves out a place for herself in this volatile and challenging era. --Katherine Boyle

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Product Details

• Paperback: 224 pages
• Publisher: Counterpoint; Original edition (December 15, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1582435456
• ISBN-13: 978-1582435459
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.6 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #842,583 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars wonderful essay collection, October 30, 2011

By 

chris busch - See all my reviews

This review is from: For You, For You I Am Trilling These Songs (Paperback)

This book was one of the best essay collections I've ever read, and I highly recommend picking it up if you enjoy them. Rooney manages to be both thoughtful and hilarious at the same time - there's some beautiful moments and funny ones, and they're usually within the same piece. Her voice is distinct and makes all of the essays flow together nicely - there's no jarring transitions between them, which is impressive. I was sad when it ended, because I liked her and the people she wrote about. Definitely hope to read more from her soon.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Pluck, December 18, 2010

By 

Dan Nielsen - See all my reviews

This review is from: For You, For You I Am Trilling These Songs (Paperback)

Pluck
Kathleen Rooney is a young writer, and I expected For You, For You I am Trilling These Songs to be the work of a young writer. It isn't. This is the work of a mature author. Sentences flow, images leap and dance, characters breathe and speak. The author cares so the reader cares, too. It's what happens with a really good book.

These are personal narrative essays. The writing is often deeply moving, and often hilariously funny, and always compellingly readable. It is also heartbreakingly personal and intimate. This is not just another clichéd story of your typically confused and misused young woman in the big city. The character Kathleen is not that, not that at all. She practices kindness and values integrity. How refreshing is that? But this is real life. Real things happen, real situations arise, and we do not really worry because this girl has pluck and she will find a way.

If you haven't already, it is time to discover the writer Kathleen Rooney. Scroll up a bit and buy the book and be prepared to fall in love.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A thoughtful and revealing read, November 14, 2010

By 

Mark R. Brand (Chicago, IL USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: For You, For You I Am Trilling These Songs (Paperback)

Kathleen Rooney accomplished one of the more difficult feats of book-craft here, and that's the creation of a book that reads as readily and intuitively as confessional storytelling while still avoiding the chronic "too-much-information" pitfall this implies. Admittedly I don't read much work like this in general, but its quality was obvious from the first page and didn't let up. Rooney lets the reader in on interesting slices of her life, providing tangential rather than head-on details, and weaves them into a very smooth, readable book. Despite its easy adaptability to the casual, beach-bag reader, there are moments of touching self-disclosure both subtle and explicit that showcase her understanding of nuanced pacing and storytelling. And there are moments of true brilliance as well, particularly the section titled "I Will Catch You", which is easily the most cogent thing I've ever read on the subject of collegiate plagiarism, and I immediately forwarded to a college-age niece of mine.

A very enjoyable read and highly recommended.