More Towels: In Between the Notes

By Grant Jarrett

One of the four younger brothers of a gifted and very successful jazz pianist, our less exceptional protagonist begins his peculiar journey of discovery at the age of seventeen, leaving his home in... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0595237983
• ISBN13: 9780595237982
• Release Date: August 2002
• Publisher: Writers Showcase Pr
• Length: 272 Pages
• Weight: 0.90 lbs.
• Dimensions: 8.8" x 0.8" x 6.0"

Customer Reviews

hilarious and touching

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.

Grant's 'good ear' heard a lot more than just music

The demons driving this gifted author sprout from his own obsessive perfectionism. The author's 'voice' has a way of echoing within the reader's head long after finishing this book.Even in the midst of his angst, Jarrett's ever-present hyper-awareness comes shining through. The struggle to master the drums was just an obvious-to-everyone-but-himself metaphor for his struggles to master and control his own inner life. His travails were no more, and no less, than any man's...but in his acute, preternatural AWARENESS of every minute detail of those struggles does he find the raw materials for this entertaining, troubling memoir. Growing up in the shadow of a famous brother(s), and living with the emptiness due to a shadowy father, Jarrett had his work cut out for him. It is every reader's good fortune that he finally chose as his trade that of putting pen to paper.This book could have been more aptly titled "Confessions of a Dangerous Mind", had that title not been so recently used for a far, far inferior Hollyweird farce. No, Jarrett's farce is one of the best...

WARNING: Do not read in public places!!!

The first time this book embarrassed me was in my doctor's office. I was in the waiting room with three or four other people when I laughed so hard my gum shot across the room. The second time was at a restaurant on my lunch hour. I made the mistake of trying to continue to read once the laughter began and I actually wet myself - and no, I do not have a history of bladder control problems. And no, I am not going to use my name in this review. This is a very funny book, just be careful where you read it.

Harrowing, hilarious and subtly heartbreaking

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.

STAY AWAY FROM MY SISTER, MISTER

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.