About book Mortification: Writers' Stories Of Their Public Shame (2004)
It seems like such a good idea in concept- stories of embarrassment by people who really know how to tell it- but the execution was just not what I'd hoped for. This is the second time I've read this and I feel exactly the same way. Yeah, there were parts where I laughed out loud, but not nearly as many as I'd hoped. I think the problem is that writers (like most artists) suffer from an all-or-nothing ego complex and most of their stories are about the same ego blow: nobody showed up at their reading, nobody wanted their book signed, the writer got drunk. There are variations, but that's the underlying theme and it's such a common problem that most of the writers refer to it as a cliche. Even the stories about something else didn't find empathy in me- they just didn't feel that embarrassing, like it was made into something bigger because of the author's fragile ego. Or maybe I'm cynical because I basically read the same story twenty times. The one who really stood out from the pack- even telling the same story- was Roddy Doyle, but I suppose that's why he was one of the two authors in the book that I'd ever heard of. So I say it must have seemed like a good idea, but as I read I thought a better book would be embarrassing stories from average folks retold by those same authors. Then you'd have the benefit of variety while showing off the writer's skills. As one author said, the problem with meeting the writer is that people believe it will give them special insight into the work. It doesn't, because the only answers are found in the work itself, so readings and signings are doomed to fail and the authors are going to look ridiculous. You'd think that would make for some funny stories, but it doesn't really.
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