Joe Brainard: I Remember

by Joe Brainard and Marie Chaix

Book Overview

The American artist's much-imitated memoir, described by Paul Auster as "one of the few totally original books I have ever read."

Joe Brainard's I Remember is a literary and artistic cult classic, praised and admired by writers from Paul Auster to John Ashery and Edmund White. As autobiography, Brainard's method was brilliantly simple: to set down specific memories as they rose to the surface of his consciousness, each...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1887123482
• ISBN13: 9781887123488
• Release Date: February 2001
• Publisher: Granary Books
• Length: 192 Pages
• Weight: 0.25 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 4.4" x 6.8"

Customer Reviews

Little book I used to live in

Ah, this little book. "I Remember" is a tiny, funny, heart-warming masterpiece composed entirely of microscopic reflections and remembrances: but like the human body itself, which is of course made up of tiny microscopic cells, the book's one- and two-sentence units of "I remember this or that" recollections gradually build up into a living, breathing, singular human presence. This book has also become a cult classic for writing instructors, as it often helps unlock a particular gate for students, enabling them to write about their own lives in an open, vivid, and funny way. (Note to parents and subject-sensitive readers: the book does contain some frank discussions of sexuality, including gay sexuality. Although these passages are honest, humane, and often funny, occasionally they can be a little bit graphic (though not at all trying to be 'shocking' or 'offensive,' simply honest.) But it does mean that the book is not meant for very young readers. Use your judgement.) Warm, intelligent, vivid, and screamingly funny. To read Joe Brainard is to love the man. We miss you, Joe.

What a little gem.

The other reviewers here have already captured the elegant, loveable essence of this tiny classic. All I'm going to do is tell you how much I agree. And how much you ought to read this. In particular, the little 5-and-6 entry arcs, where you can trace Joe's associations, and the places where they unexpectedly end up, is quite moving and hilarious. And the very last entry is so wonderful, so unexpected, and so like Joe, it's worth reading the whole book just to get there.

Brilliant!!!

I didn't think it could be done, but Joe Brainard has managed to keep me interested through a book-length poem! It's all about the pop culture references and those universal moments of feeling just plain odd. Every stanza begins with "I remember", but he manages not to make it boring at all.

Unforgettable

Elegant in its simplicity, its genuine humility in face of all the splendors and confusions of American memory and life.

A Pocket-Sized Proust

I just picked up a copy of "I Remember" at a Joe Brainard retrospective at the Berkeley Art Museum last weekend. All the warmth, humor and good-natured silliness of his art are here in these "poems"--1-3 sentence reminiscences that meander from his Tulsa childhood to sexual experiences in New York in the mid '60s. It's tempting to quote individual lines, but I'd best leave the writing to Brainard. Just dip in anywhere and follow the flow from objects to advertisements to remembrances of friends or incidents or walks, all woven together by the nostalgic refrain: "I remember . . . " Brainard records impressions like a camera, not trying to make them mean. Without pretension or irony, he mananges to describe an America of a certain time and place more vividly than longer, more macho efforts to capture The American Experience. Brainard makes it seem easy, and he passes the fun on to you. Read, remember, enjoy.