More Towels: In Between the Notes (Paperback)

~ (Author) "When I began playing music for a living I was very young, and not very good; fortunately, at that time and place, talent was not..." (more)
Key Phrases: dance sets, New York, Area Code, Atlantic City (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

One of four younger brothers of a world-renowned jazz pianist, our less exceptional protagonist begins his peculiar journey of discovery at the age of seventeen, leaving his home in Pennsylvania's Pocono Mountains to work with a laughably bad, self-contained show band.

As he travels back and forth across the continent with a series of mostly unremarkable bands, he encounters a world wherein talent is far less essential than a charming smile and the willingness to wear a ruffled polyester shirt, a world wherein getting laid is far more enjoyable, and a hell of a lot easier, than learning to play his instrument or sustaining a meaningful relationship.

Beautiful young women and angry husbands litter his voyage; there are violent assaults and hilarious confrontations, and through it all, as he searches desperately for something or someone to believe in, he shares his intensely cynical view of himself and the world around him.

Though far more humorous than many memoirs, More Towels is a serious and often touching coming-of-age story, a story of growth and acceptance and all the battles along the way.

About the Author

Grant Jarrett spent the first twenty years of his working life as a professional musician, and the six years following managing a small business in Manhattan and writing his first memoir. In the past six years he has written over a dozen short stories, two novels, and a second memoir. Mr. Jarrett lives in New York City and earns his living as an editor and freelance writer. In 2001 he published half a dozen magazine articles and ghostwrote a nonfiction book for Pocketbooks.

Product Details

• Paperback: 268 pages
• Publisher: IUniverse (August 15, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0595237983
• ISBN-13: 978-0595237982
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (20 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,175,071 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars STAY AWAY FROM MY SISTER, MISTER, March 1, 2004

By	"gordopolous" (Boston, MA) - See all my reviews

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.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars hilarious and touching, July 28, 2004

By	susan_d - See all my reviews

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.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Harrowing, hilarious and subtly heartbreaking, March 10, 2004

By	"vbd72" (New York, NY United States) - See all my reviews

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.