Title: Still life With Brass Pole
Author: Craig Machen
Format: Trade Paper
Publisher: self-published
Pub Date: May 2011
Read: July 2011
Source: The author sent me a copy.
Why: The author sent me a request. After reading the first few paragraphs on Amazon, I said yes.
Fulfills Challenge? Yes
Notes: I want to say this is the first self-published book I’ve read but I suppose that’s not quite true. I read Solipsist earlier this year which is published by 2.13.61 which Rollins founded himself. Soooo yeah, technically I guess that’s self-published. But this is the first time I went into it knowingly! :D
Review/Thoughts:
Overall I thought the book was entertaining. I found myself reading it much more quickly than expected and within just a couple of days I was done. I enjoyed the unpretentious writing style and Machen’s sense of humor in the face of some really rather shitty circumstances. The author portrays his parents with compassion and insight but that didn’t stop me from feeling outraged over their behavior anyway. Regardless, I liked the fact that he didn’t demonize them and that everyone was portrayed with at least some sympathy or measure of understanding.
The use of the present tense gave the work a sense of immediacy and being right there alongside Machen, but because the story was not always told in a linear fashion, it got confusing after awhile. Each scene was clear in and of itself, but there were times when I was lost when it came to the chronology of events. For example, at one point Machen and his girlfriend decide to pack it all up and head to California. We are told this and then we are taken back to the events that led up to this decision. Along the way I actually forgot that, so that by the time that portion of the story came full circle I was like OH riiiiight. This is but one instance. The author moved around a lot growing up, and while there’s nothing that can be done about that, there is something that can be done about the way events are presented to make the narrative less confusing for the reader. This sort of thing probably could have been rectified with tighter editing.
All in all, the book definitely has that summer daze, summer haze appeal to it. Like a cross-country road trip, just enjoy the ride.
Final Verdict: 
Nicole,
Thanks so much for review my book. I really enjoyed your review!
All the best,
Craig Machen
Word! Great review. Good point about the sympathetic rendering of rather unsavory parents. I didn’t mention it in my review, but this memoir was refreshing in that it wasn’t whiny. And the scrubby characters are still presented as real characters. That was really good.
And yeah, I got a little confused too about the changing settings- there was a period of, like, 20 pages that I thought was taking place in Arizona when it was really California (or maybe it was vice versa- see, I’m confused!).
Overall, a quick and engaging read, though! Perfect for summer, like you said.