The Chelsea Whistle

by Michelle Tea

In this gritty, confessional memoir, Michelle Tea takes the reader back to the city of her childhood: Chelsea, Massachusetts—a place where time and hope are spent on things not getting any worse. Tea’s girlhood is shaped by the rough fabric of the neighborhood and by its characters—the soft vulnerability of her sister Madeline and her quietly brutal Polish father; the doddering, sometimes violent nuns of Our Lady of Assumption; Marisol Lewis from the projects by the creek; and Johnna Latrotta, the tough-as-nails Italian dance-school teacher who offered a slim chance for escape to every young Chelsea girl in tulle and tap shoes. Told in Tea’s trademark loose-tongued, lyrical style, this memoir both celebrates and annihilates one girl’s tightrope walk out of a working-class slum and the lessons she carries with her. With wry humor and a hard-fought wisdom, Tea limns the extravagant peril of a dramatic adolescence with the private, catastrophic secret harbored within the walls of her family’s home—a secret that threatens to destroy her family forever.

Genres: Memoir, Queer, Nonfiction, LGBT, Biography Memoir, Coming Of Age, Biography

331 pages, Paperback

First published August 2, 2002

About the author

Michelle Tea (born Michelle Tomasik) is an American author, poet, and literary arts organizer whose autobiographical works explore queer culture, feminism, race, class, prostitution, and other topics. She is originally from Chelsea, Massachusetts and currently lives in San Francisco. Her books, mostly memoirs, are known for their views into the queercore community. In 2012 Tea partnered with City Lights Publishers to form the Sister Spit imprint.

Reviews

[Maria Cheevers · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was magic for me given that I grew up in the same neighborhood, at the same time period as the author (actually she is propably about 7 years younger than I). While reading I felt as though we lived parralel lives w/ regard to each and every reference in the book - from birth until I finally left at 30. We lived in the same neighborhood, Catholic School, 'girl' activities (dance and cheering - not much else available), and hang outs (soldiers home and the wall). In fact I know may of the people that she referred to in the book. She is a fantastic visual writer and I love her use of 'Chelsea' expressions/language - I was dying as the voice was a voice I am and know. I thought the book was beautiful and want my daughters to read it someday so that they understand their Mom better - with all the beauty, humor and sometimes sadness that Chelsea offered during that time period. Thank you Michelle Tea - there is finally a book that speaks to Chelsea.

[Nicole Field · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is the first book I've read from this author. "A gritty coming-of-age, coming out memoir", it told me, on the back of the cover. I'd heard of Michelle Tea before, I was aware that she was a lesbian. But this memoir is less of a "coming out" memoir, and more of a "wandering around the ages of 14 to 18 with a dysfunctional family in Chelsea" memoir.

Unlike many stories of abject poverty in America, this story had nothing to do with people of colour, of with racism. Michelle's mother is married to one not particularly nice man, who fathers two girls--Michelle and her sister Madeline--before leaving acrimoniously. Dennis is followed by Will, a middle aged drunk who nonetheless adopts both girls and thereafter sees them as his own daughters.

It was a story that was far, far removed from anything I've come across in my life and, for that reason, I found it really hard to relate to Michelle or any of the main characters. Another problem that I had was, at most times, there were so many names being thrown across the page that I was losing count of who was who, and who was going to stay relevant. Of course, this is just sometimes the way in memoirs, as life doesn't always lend itself well to stories.

At the same time, it is the job of a memoir writer to turn their life into a publishable narrative.

The back of the book promises a secret that will change the course of her life forever, which I suppose it does, really, but it has zero effect on the mother, who sticks her fingers in her ears and starts singing, and there is no further mention of her sister after she forces a confession out of their step-dad.

I was all set to rate the book a three because of all this, but then the story just... ended. I don't mean that the narrative came to a well rounded end. No. I mean that the pages ran out and there was the Acknowledgements, and there I was left with the feeling of a book finished halfway through a sentence.

[Jaclyn · Rating 3 out of 5]

I do love this book but not nearly as much as I had hoped to.

I am a huge fan of her writing style but this particular book didn't seem to have any direction.

It is essentially a collection of memories, not always in chronological order. Some chapters I would find fascinating but they would be a few short pages. Other parts seemed to go on far too long.

I developed a deep connection to her in this book. I just wish there had been a beginning or an end.

This book is more like something she wrote for herself than anyone else.

[Amy D.P. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Although I didn't think I could love a book more than Valencia, Michelle Tea gives us this amazing book! This is the third in a trio and I believe it to be her best. She goes backwards in time in her series and this takes you to her childhood. Her use of imagery is fantastic and I can feel the bleakness of small town life and growing up.

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

This hit me a lot stronger than "How to Grow Up." It's got some serious force to it, wonderful grit and some stellar, straightforward lines. It's vivid as anything, and so solid. It's structure is in pieces, but that worked the best for me. Some really good stuff.

[Amy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Tea isn't as funny in this book, but she takes on some tough memories very directly. I always find her a pleasure to read.

[Diane · Rating 3 out of 5]

American high school students should be reading books like this rather than outdated novels like Catcher in the Rye.

[Tabi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Gritty and real and exposing, Tea tells stories of her formative years growing up in Chelsea, including figuring out her sexuality.
Trigger warning for abuse.

[Paige · Rating 3 out of 5]

Once again, here is another half-rating; I would truly rate this book 3 1/2. However, if it weren't for the ending, I would have rated it a 4. This memoir was pretty amazing, heart-breaking, and passionate. Michelle Tea has a knack for writing her memories out beautifully. When I first started reading this book, it reminded me of a poetry/prose style and it really hooked me. Tea's writing style and the way she explained things from her childhood not only got you to keep reading but got you to become immersed in Tea's childhood. Her heart-breaking past takes you into a world of drugs, abuse, alcohol, and flaky friend, boyfriends, and girlfriends. Sometimes I didn't know how her life would end up - a reason I was really pushing to get to the end. However, the ending, for me did not make this book. Rather than ending, the book just stopped and I didn't get a grasp of what Tea's life was like at that point in time. It didn't seem to resolve enough for me. Perhaps Tea meant for that to happen, but the ending just didn't make the cut for me, personally. Thinking over the rest of the book, regardless of the ending, I absolutely loved it.

[Arcade Annie]

MIchelle Tea is hands down one of my favorite authors, and "The Chelsea Whistle", and was the first novel I ever read by this author. It was also the novel that had me coming back and coming back again to read everything she ever wrote.

I think a lot of us feel like we're still teenagers in many ways, sometimes I do, but I'm also a sucker for a good coming of age story, which is what "The Chelsea Whistle" is, a story of Ms. Tea growing up in a run down suburb of Boston during (mostly) the 80's. It starts with a declaration about childhood being morbid, and playing dead as a childhood game. The story of Ms. Tea's life is a story almost any girl, especially one (like me) who grew up during the late 70's and 80's can relate to, even more so if you went to Catholic school and had to navigate through those particular pitfalls and mines. Then there are the particular traps that wait to ensnare a girl growing up working class with divorced parents. And there's the taboo of family secrets, incest in particular, and her vivid descriptions of conflicting and poignant emotions that makes "The Chelsea Whistle" a valuable companion book for rape, abuse and incest survivors.

[Lewis · Rating 5 out of 5]

In her disturbing, funny, and often lyrical memoir, Tea effectively captures the ugliness and grit of our shared hometown (two writers from Chelsea, Massachusetts—it’s a miracle!). I’m not sure if an outsider would have the same reaction, but I could see every detail clearly as her prose triggered buried memories of places and a way of life I’ve gladly left behind. The dominant emotion of the memoir is anger, and very understandably, given the backward culture of Chelsea. But then Tea completely startles with passages of poetic description—always maintaining her tone, skating that fine line to avoid falling into sentimentality. The tension between her tough persona and the beautifully expressed insights sustains the story, adding layers of intriguing complexity.

[Angel · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Chelsea Whistle by Michelle Tea is a “gritty, confessional” memoir. Michelle Tea has been an immensely influential writer within the queercore scene, an arts movement that includes music, art, poetry and spoken-word, and literature by newer generations of the GLBT community. This book chronicles her life growing up in the working-class slums of Chelsea, Massachusetts. Not afraid to make her readers uncomfortable, Tea writes of her experiences with drugs, sex, and rebellion unapologetically. If you're looking for a memoir that offers redemption at the end, Tea will betray your expectations. Her visceral and candid descriptions give the book a voyeuristic feel and like a train wreck, it's hard to pull yourself away from it. I found that this book drew me in from the very beginning.

[Julie · Rating 4 out of 5]

ahhh! i really like this book - but i really like Michelle Tea in general - i would say she's my favorite author, or definately up there -- this is a memoir about her life growing up in Chelsea, Massachusetts - she is funny and to the point - the thing that i like the most about her is the way that she is able to convey an idea so clearly through a metaphor - she's just one of those authors who i 'get' which is sometimes difficult to come by, but so delicious when it actually happens

when im reading M.T.'s work i often think it is exactly how i think i would write if i cultivated my writing

[Katherine · Rating 4 out of 5]

I feel I need to read all her books then reread them to make sense of the whole story; I'd read some of this material before in The Passionate Mistakes..., Rent Girl, and maybe The Beautiful, but liked this straight-up memoir much better. I really liked the writing here; there are passages I want to read out loud to people. It jumps around a bit and there are many characters and places to keep straight, but I could mostly follow it. I wish a little more was explained (what happened to Kevin? to Carla? what about the vocational school?), and it ends painfully abruptly (and painfully). But I think it works well as a memoir of its place and time and of coming of age...

[Daniel Levesque · Rating 3 out of 5]

I like this one because of The Whistle itself. In Woonsocket, RI, we had the "Seven -OClock Whistle"- a horn that blew every night, to let you know it was 7pm. Just incase.
Michelle and I grew up in such similar environs, we really speak the same language and reference the same things. (At my last show in SF, Michelle was the only person that laughed when I mentioned Willie Whistle. I have the same reaction to her when she writes about ham salad)
This is the Tea book in which I am a character: "Wiggy", the soul -crushed, Xanax chomping hairdresser at the bar drinking Pink Squirrels. I know- quite a leap.

[Mark · Rating 3 out of 5]

Decent enough book, but the author's style is a bit rambling and jumps around quite a bit without any apparent rhyme or reason. It was an enjoyable memoir, but the end point seemed a bit randomly chosen like Tea just decided, "ok, I'm bored writing about this part of my life. I'll just plunk down this last installment and call it a book." I'm happy I finished reading it, but I'm not sure if I'd recommend it.

[Amber · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's no small feat to look back on a shitty childhood with an unflinching gaze and manage to find the humor along with the pain. Michelle Tea negotiates the working class minefield of her girlhood with characteristic wit and sharp, sometimes heartbreaking, prose. In exploring the specifics of her Chelsea adolescence, she tells the universal story of what it is to be a girl galloping towards womanhood.

[Meg Powers · Rating 4 out of 5]

I never met a Michelle Tea memoir I didn't like! Although towards the end of The Chelsea Whistle, certain chapters seem to borrow from previous memoirs. AND she briefly refers to Rhode Island as "boring" (AGH! But what can you expect from a Bostonian?). This book is great, however, especially if you grew up in a dingy and colorless part of New England (which I did, for seven years, anyway), poor and with life coming down hard on you.

[Alida Hanson · Rating 5 out of 5]

A coming of age memoir set in 90s (? or is it 80s?) Boston. Michelle Tea describes her childhood and young adult years growing up poor, working class and wild (her word not mine!) in Chelsea, MA. She has a gift for describing the fast paced events, alliances, and tumultuous social and family milestones that come in a torrent during those years. Michelle Tea has written many memoirs and is an important figure in the literary LGBTQ community in San Francisco. Her writing is deft and engrossing.

[Kat · Rating 1 out of 5]

If you like stories about depression, drug use, and irresponsible behavior then this book is for you. I read this book because she claimed to have been raised in the same house as me. I wanted to get a glimpse of my city before I was born. I like hearing about the school that was across the street and it was interesting to find secrets about my home but I didn't like how her memoir felt negative and obscene. I'm also upset she described the house as having a puke green color.

[Christian · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really love Michelle Tea's writing style and had held off on reading this book since I wanted to read the first memoir before, but no one ever had it when I thought to buy it, nevermind that I had already read Valencia. I finally just bought it and devoured it. She'll make you laugh out loud on one page and make your heart twinge on the next.

[Susie · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was kind of long winded so I got through half the book and put it down for like a year. But then when I picked it back up the 2nd half seemed to keep my attention more. There's lots of detail, maybe a little too much sometimes but overall it's a good book. I liked her book "passionate mistakes..." a lot more though.

[Melissa · Rating 2 out of 5]

If you're from Boston, you may like this book, a memoir written by a woman who was raised in Chelsea, MA. It was a lot of the Bostonian references that cracked me up. I also discovered that I went to high school with one of the girls in the book (the sister of the author), which made it that much more interesting and eye-opening.

[Susan · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved this book, as it reminded me of my own childhood, but sometimes I felt like Tea needed help from her editor in defining ***why*** certain moments were so significant to her. There are a few "isn't this weird/f**cked up?" moments that don't move very much beyond the initial shock, but needed to.

[Sam · Rating 5 out of 5]

The author & I grew up a few blocks from each-other & a few years apart, then followed overlapping paths to Boston, then SF. Tea remembers more details from my childhood than I do. So I can vouch for authenticity, but I don't think you need to have been there to enjoy this amazing memoir.

---

PS: I just re-read this. Racier than I remember -- must be getting old.

[Robyn Obermeyer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Anyone who can write a book about their life and remember so much is alright by me!i think I would have liked this person had we have met, but she may not have liked me.....she seems pretty wild and fun and her story was defiantly believable having come from mass myself, nothing close to Chelsae I can still visualize the places she wrote about!

[Amy Crossman · Rating 5 out of 5]

Kick-ass book! Maybe I love this book so much because I can really identify with Tea, her childhood could have almost been my own, well maybe not exactly, but she really captures the experience of growing up in a shabby Massachusetts town. Her memoir is gritty, bold, and brutally honest.

[Risa · Rating 5 out of 5]

When someone describes the feeling of a big, fat let down in love or life coming on as a, "toilet flushing" inside of them, you can't help but feel it and think that NO ONE has ever put it so perfectly. and no one has.

[Hectaizani · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this memoir which related the author's experiences of growing up in a dysfunctional family. I think I like this type of book because my family was also broken and I can see the similarities.

[Kristi Marshae · Rating 2 out of 5]

disappointing. i felt like the story was abruptly cut short just as it was getting a little more interesting. her descriptions of childhood are delightful, but it wasn't fulfilling.