A Common Pornography: A Memoir

by Kevin Sampsell

Book Overview

In 2003 Kevin Sampsell authored a chapbook memoir of the same title. It was written as a kind of "memory experiment," in which he recollected luminous details from his childhood in independently amusing chapters. It functioned as an experiential catalogue of American youth in the 70s and 80s.

In 2008 Kevin′s estranged father died of an aneurysm. When he returned home to Kennewick, Washington for the funeral, Kevin′s mother revealed...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0061766100
• ISBN13: 9780061766107
• Release Date: January 2010
• Publisher: Harper Perennial
• Length: 256 Pages
• Weight: 0.45 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 5.3" x 8.0"

Customer Reviews

Fantastic Book

Great book which offers an intimate look into Kevin's life and relationships. Despite the the huge differences in lives that we have lived, there were always those truly "human" moments that anyone can connect to.

Honest memoir

A common pornography reads like a dairy. It's a collection of short essays about his life. I was moved by his honesty. Great read.

an uncommon read

This is the perfect book to accompany a quiet Friday night spent drinking wine in bed. Or a Sunday morning on the backporch sipping gas station coffee from a styrofoam cup. The stories within are short, tight, and disturbingly honest. The books flows so well, and holds the reader's interest to such an extent, that setting the book down once it is begun seems an impossibility.

A little big book

This is the first time I've read Sampsell's work beyond the McSweeney's website, and I found it enormously touching, provocative, sentimental (in a good, just heard Shake It Up on the radio sort of way), and inspiring. I've never enjoyed the memoir genre until I read this book. Pick it up. I guarantee it will haunt you.

Sweet and sour

Each page features a short little episode from the author's childhood. Some very funny stuff happens. Space shuttles, pop star dreams, dirty magazine hiding, first girlfriends with dirty teeth. It's all very poignant and resonant. A well-done work.