"NICHE: A Memoir in Pastiche" by Momus (FSG)
I'm a massive fan of the memoir, due that the writer usually has to be interesting, good writer, or know how to lie interestingly. As a reader, I never cared if what I'm reading is the truth or not. I only care how the narrator tells (writes) the tale. Momus (Nick Currie) is such a writer that I enjoy going on the journey with him. As a reader, he's the driver, and I'm sitting on the passenger side of the vehicle—the precise reason why I love memoirs. And Mr. Currie wrote an excellent book.
Momus has 217 narrators witnessing and telling the tale. All of them are dead and all divine. What sounds like from a distance just a cute idea, actually works in writing. Momus uses the voices of writers/artists like Franz Kafka to David Bowie, and beyond. I counted the narrators and, I didn't know 37 at all. One of the fun things about "Niche" is that you can google the ones you don't, and it's no extra work, it's a learning experience. Momus writes through his narrators about his musical career, but even more interesting to me is that he's exceptionally a superb travel writer. His status as an outsider makes him a voyeur of different cultures, and his writings about Japan I found thrilling. Mostly due that I lived and visited Japan many times, and I believe we were in the country around the same time. So I understand what he went through, and it's a game to compare my experiences of Japan with his time there.
"Niche" reads like a fast-moving Literary Critique, due to the way he sets up the narrative through other voices. The writing is smart, but not over-done. Like Serge Gainsbourg, in that he is both a masterful writer/lyricist and a composer, he's a jack-of-all-trades and wears all clothing equally well.
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