Somehow Form a Family: Stories That Are Mostly
True
by Tony Earley
I am a huge fan of "Jim the Boy" and was eager to read these "stories that are mostly true." Early's sentences,
particularly his metaphors, are amazing. The final story about riding in the Concorde as it set a speed record - the
language left me devestated at times - his sentences are just so good. However, my favorite essays/stories were
about Early's childhood, growing up in a "mother-father-sister-brother family" and often feeling he didn't fit in.
The stories don't fit together in a greater whole - the collection doesn't feel like it adds up to a reading experience
in a satisfying way. They are simply chronological. But taken one at a time, on their own terms, most are moving,
with many images (like granny's beans in the snow) that linger long after they are read.|As many reviewers note,
Tony Earley writes incredibly lucid, potent prose that accomplishes a lot without frill or stuffiness. As much as I
enjoyed this book's style, I felt myself liking the person telling the stories better than many of the actual stories. I
sensed that I was in the presence of someone who struggles to write about the hardest thing. Even his fantastic
title essay, the first in the collection, operates on a level of avoidance (and in this case the form and content work
so harmoniously that they echo and re-echo). The rest of the stories, though, treat real conflict with distance and
reserve. They're fragmented into short sections that create an associative reading experience when what I really
want is for Earley to linger, to relentlessly pursue, what troubles him. Although the stories rarely satisfied me, I
enjoyed being in the room with Earley. Like him, I often struggle to focus hard on difficult personal subjects, and in
his company, I never felt alone.|Yes he is a good writer, but no this is not that good of a book. The opening,
eponymous essay of the collection is a winner, half shame-faced celebration, half-indictment, of the fact that many
(most?) American families are more likely to know the tunes from sit-coms and commercials, lyrics included, than
know any of the classics of the Western musical canon, or even of American popular music, and that the
expectations for the tempo and tenor of life for many of us were set by those very sit-coms and commercials.
know any of the classics of the Western musical canon, or even of American popular music, and that the
expectations for the tempo and tenor of life for many of us were set by those very sit-coms and commercials.
After that auspicious opening the book moves from the dull to the droll, kept moving only by the author's sense
of humor and penchant for saving body blows for the last paragraph or two, and ends with an inexplicable
retelling of a pointless (albeit record-setting for speed) around-the-world trip in a Concorde aircraft. If you are a
relative of his, then by all means read this book, but if not, read David Sedaris instead.|Tony Earley has a way of
writing about things that often makes me breathless. In this book, a series of essays about his relationship to
family and place, he nails that feeling of being the generation that has grown away from farm and rural life. As
someone who grew up on a farm in the country who now lives in a world removed from farming and animals and
guns and community--yep, all of these--he speaks to me in his insights about family dynamics, community
dynamics, and how the contrasts of our lives and theirs give us an understanding of their lives and our own.|This
collection is brought to you by the title essay, which is astounding. Some of his family stories are very appealing,
though I hungered to know more about him. It is a collection and not cohesive. You hit rock bottom at the end
with Earley's press junket flight around the world. What's interesting is to see what he can do with such a dead
concept- interesting because he's a great writer on a doomed mission, but not fascinating, and ultimately almost
as depressing and pointless as what he went through.