In this memoir of her first two
decades, Michelle Tea relates the details of her life in Chelsea, a suburb of
Boston.  Her family was working class,
and there was not a lot of money to spare. 
She tells of her parents’ tumultuous marriage, their split, and her
mother’s remarriage.  She talks about
her relationships to boys, her early sexual explorations, her loss of virginity
with a boyfriend, and her eventual identification as a lesbian.  She talks about her love of rock music and
her hanging around record shops and other alternative spaces in her
neighborhood.  She talks about her alcoholic
step-father and her eventual accusation of his abuse of her and her sister.  She talks about her friends and relatives,
the births and deaths, the drug addictions, marriages, divorces, and
affairs.  She talks and talks and talks.  What Tea’s memoir lacks is insight or even a
measured sense of priorities.  She piles
details on details, rambling on in what might be called a stream of
consciousness or what might be called an lack of technique.  Maybe some readers will enjoy her
self-involvement, but I found this a very difficult book to finish.  After about half way through this 330-page
memoir, I lost my enthusiasm and curiosity for learning about Tea’s life, and
had to keep on pushing myself to go on for a few more chapters.  Even though the revelations at the last part of the book are shocking, by the time that readers have reaches that stage, they may have
stopped caring what happens. (It is notable that judging from the reader comments at Amazon.com, even many of those who also grew up in Chelsea found Tea’s memoir less than gripping, although to be fair, some readers are very enthusiastic about the book. It is published by Seal Press, whose slogan is “By Women. For Women.” so it is possible that female readers will find the book more worthwhile.)

© 2005 Christian Perring. All
rights reserved.

Link: Seal Press

Christian Perring, Ph.D., is
Chair of the Philosophy Department at Dowling College, Long Island, and editor
of Metapsychology Online Review.  His main research is on
philosophical issues in medicine, psychiatry and psychology.

Categories: Memoirs