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Contents May Have Shifted
Heart-stopping prose and crackling observations on a spiritual journey toward a life rich in love and freedom. Stuck in a dead-end relationship, this fearless narrator leaves her metaphorical baggage behind and finds a comfort zone in the air, “feeling safest with one plane ticket in her hand and another in her underwear drawer.” She flies around the world, finding reasons to love life in dozens of far-flung places from Alaska to Bhutan. Along the way she weathers unplanned losses of altitude, air pressure, and landing gear. With the help of a squad of loyal, funny, wise friends and massage therapists, she learns to sort truth from self-deception, self-involvement from self-possession.
At last, having found a new partner “who loves Don DeLillo and the NHL” and a daughter “who needs you to teach her to dive and to laugh at herself”―not to mention two dogs and two horses―“staying home becomes more of an option. Maybe.”
At last, having found a new partner “who loves Don DeLillo and the NHL” and a daughter “who needs you to teach her to dive and to laugh at herself”―not to mention two dogs and two horses―“staying home becomes more of an option. Maybe.”
320 pages, Hardcover
First published January 30, 2012
155 people are currently reading
2707 people want to read
About the author
Pam Houston
45 books926 followersHouston is the Director of Creative Writing at U.C. Davis. Her stories have been selected for the Best American Short Stories, the O. Henry Awards, the Pushcart Prize, and the Best American Short Stories of the Century. She lives in Colorado at 9,000 feet above sea level near the headwaters of the Rio Grande.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 335 reviews
February 18, 2021
I wanted to like this book, but I couldn't. Normally I love things written in short, sweet snippets like this, and I was and am intrigued by the style. But in this book I felt as if there was no "there" there. I wanted to either be shown more about the interior underbelly of the narrator, and discover what this was all about for her and how the travels were affecting her, and/or I wanted more about the fabulous out-of-the-way places she has traveled. Instead I got neither. I felt like this was a bragbook of all the interesting places she's traveled, with no real sense of what effect these journeys had on her. At times I was able to go with the flow, but ultimately I had no sense by the end that Pam had evolved in any way, nor did I have anywhere near enough rich travel and sense-of-place details I would have loved to read.
I got VERY tired of the whining about men, and annoyed that the self-absorbed navel gazing didn't go anywhere. Parts of the book are brilliant, and this would have worked for me if I had any sense of change in the narrator, but alas. The narrator was far too self-absorbed in ways that didn't fit with her adventurous nature, and the constant obsessing over men irritated me immensely.
I got VERY tired of the whining about men, and annoyed that the self-absorbed navel gazing didn't go anywhere. Parts of the book are brilliant, and this would have worked for me if I had any sense of change in the narrator, but alas. The narrator was far too self-absorbed in ways that didn't fit with her adventurous nature, and the constant obsessing over men irritated me immensely.
February 19, 2012
Reading Pam Houston gives me courage. I studied with her the second semester of my MFA and count her as a big influence. I will never be adventurous in the outdoors sense, the way she is. But I do aspire to her fearlessness in writing.
It’s not just the structure (144 short chapters, conceived as 144 reasons not to commit suicide). It’s not just the sleight of hand that makes the intimate-funny-smart voice of the narrator Pam sound just like but even better than the author’s own voice. It’s not just the sense that at any moment our heroine could fall out of the sky as her plane nose-dives or that our lives are all hanging on a wisp of cumulous cloud.
It’s the language: e.g. “the handsome-in-a-rangy, greyhoundesque-way flight attendant”). It’s the one-sentence spot-on portrait of adolescence: (“Kara, fifteen, put about a milliliter of [pasta sauce] on the tip of her tongue and shrugged, said, “It’s not your best work.”) It’s that this Pam, the narrator of the book, pulls people’s secret stories out of them, the way I hope to be able to do someday. How does she get her (male) ophthalmologist to tell her this: “I want to say this in a way that makes you think I am a normal person. My daughter Penelope still sleeps with me. She’s twelve.” Reading this book is like reading people’s minds. The tone is so personal and confessional sounding, she makes us believe it is all true, even though it is fiction, one of Houston's signature tricks.
It’s not just the structure (144 short chapters, conceived as 144 reasons not to commit suicide). It’s not just the sleight of hand that makes the intimate-funny-smart voice of the narrator Pam sound just like but even better than the author’s own voice. It’s not just the sense that at any moment our heroine could fall out of the sky as her plane nose-dives or that our lives are all hanging on a wisp of cumulous cloud.
It’s the language: e.g. “the handsome-in-a-rangy, greyhoundesque-way flight attendant”). It’s the one-sentence spot-on portrait of adolescence: (“Kara, fifteen, put about a milliliter of [pasta sauce] on the tip of her tongue and shrugged, said, “It’s not your best work.”) It’s that this Pam, the narrator of the book, pulls people’s secret stories out of them, the way I hope to be able to do someday. How does she get her (male) ophthalmologist to tell her this: “I want to say this in a way that makes you think I am a normal person. My daughter Penelope still sleeps with me. She’s twelve.” Reading this book is like reading people’s minds. The tone is so personal and confessional sounding, she makes us believe it is all true, even though it is fiction, one of Houston's signature tricks.
June 6, 2012
Maybe I'm just not as familiar as I should be with the type of mimetic fiction presented here—I'm perfectly prepared to believe that—but... I picked this book up on a whim (my wife had checked it out of the library for herself, and it was close to hand when nothing else was), and was immediately captivated by the page I'd opened to at random. That doesn't happen to me very often these days. I read another few pages, then realized that yes, I was going to start over at the beginning and read the whole thing... and that happens to me even less often. Houston has an amazing gift for capturing essentials in tiny slices of prose, and that's a good thing for a reader to encounter, whatever the genre.
I am given to understand that this book is a work of fiction; if so, though, it still has the immediacy of an autobiography, or a journal, written dramatically and unfolding in the moment. Less a novel than a series of intense vignettes, Contents May Have Shifted changes locales with dizzying rapidity, eventually building up a coherent portrait of its narrator through a kind of literary pointillism. Each two- or three-page chapter could stand on its own, but each contributes to a growing understanding of its (fictional—some parts obviously more fictional than others) Pam Houston's being.
I think it's the eerie, jewellike specificity of Houston's writing that brings on the feeling—illusory though it may be—that we are coming to know this person so deeply. Each snapshot Houston shows us is sharply focused on the details of her protagonist's surroundings, companions, foods tasted and monuments visited, but each gives us a glimpse into "Houston" and her inner life as well. Travel is redemptive, even when (especially when?) it's life-threatening—that is the theme that binds them together. Indeed, sometimes the book feels like a scattered travelogue, like Eat Pray Love (but more acerbic, cerebral and self-aware)—or so I believe, anyway. I haven't actually read that one, but when I described this book to a cow orker, Elizabeth Gilbert's book is what she immediately thought of too.
It's not a perfect narrative, of course—what is, in this imperfect world? From small flaws (such as the use of "flare" instead of "flair" on p.33; a reference to "Orleans Parrish" on p.44; a funny-in-context mention of "unexploded ordinances" on p.71) to larger issues (it's hard to shake off all the vestiges of First World privilege—see Houston's cure for depression, for example, from p.52: "Remember this and get on an airplane, a small one if possible, because it always works"), this book can occasionally seem smug, the chronicles of the woman who does everything more perfectly than you.
But those quibbles are so minor I hesitate even to introduce them. Let me give you an example of the kind of mini-story Houston writes, the sort of thing that grabbed me, the sort of thing I envy. This is the second in a "short list, in chronological order, of suicides I have known" (from pp.46-47):
"Love is supposed to feel good," Nora always tells me, "at least fifty-one percent of the time" (p.171). This novel feels good to read, substantially more than 50% of the time. And while it may be true that, however tightly packed, its Contents May Have Shifted, you can also rest assured that everything Houston intended to deliver should still arrive intact.
I am given to understand that this book is a work of fiction; if so, though, it still has the immediacy of an autobiography, or a journal, written dramatically and unfolding in the moment. Less a novel than a series of intense vignettes, Contents May Have Shifted changes locales with dizzying rapidity, eventually building up a coherent portrait of its narrator through a kind of literary pointillism. Each two- or three-page chapter could stand on its own, but each contributes to a growing understanding of its (fictional—some parts obviously more fictional than others) Pam Houston's being.
I think it's the eerie, jewellike specificity of Houston's writing that brings on the feeling—illusory though it may be—that we are coming to know this person so deeply. Each snapshot Houston shows us is sharply focused on the details of her protagonist's surroundings, companions, foods tasted and monuments visited, but each gives us a glimpse into "Houston" and her inner life as well. Travel is redemptive, even when (especially when?) it's life-threatening—that is the theme that binds them together. Indeed, sometimes the book feels like a scattered travelogue, like Eat Pray Love (but more acerbic, cerebral and self-aware)—or so I believe, anyway. I haven't actually read that one, but when I described this book to a cow orker, Elizabeth Gilbert's book is what she immediately thought of too.
It's not a perfect narrative, of course—what is, in this imperfect world? From small flaws (such as the use of "flare" instead of "flair" on p.33; a reference to "Orleans Parrish" on p.44; a funny-in-context mention of "unexploded ordinances" on p.71) to larger issues (it's hard to shake off all the vestiges of First World privilege—see Houston's cure for depression, for example, from p.52: "Remember this and get on an airplane, a small one if possible, because it always works"), this book can occasionally seem smug, the chronicles of the woman who does everything more perfectly than you.
But those quibbles are so minor I hesitate even to introduce them. Let me give you an example of the kind of mini-story Houston writes, the sort of thing that grabbed me, the sort of thing I envy. This is the second in a "short list, in chronological order, of suicides I have known" (from pp.46-47):
The girl in the first writing class I ever taught whose boyfriend left her in a campground in the desert. She walked for fifteen miles to the nearest highway, hitched to Grand Junction, borrowed the cash for a bus ticket to Denver, walked ten blocks from the bus station to their apartment, turned the key in the lock, and hung herself from the rafters. Following her death, I heard that the boy who really loved her, who had been watching her canaries for her while she went to the desert with the other boy, wrapped the small birds in cellophane and shot them with a BB gun so he would not have to hear the flapping of their wings.If that's the kind of flashbulb moment for which you read fiction... rest assured that Houston packs a lot of such moments into 306 pages.
"Love is supposed to feel good," Nora always tells me, "at least fifty-one percent of the time" (p.171). This novel feels good to read, substantially more than 50% of the time. And while it may be true that, however tightly packed, its Contents May Have Shifted, you can also rest assured that everything Houston intended to deliver should still arrive intact.
May 25, 2012
Oh, Pam, how you've let me down. I've loved Pam Houston for years, after discovering her "Cowboys are My Weakness" story collection. Her newest "novel" is really anything but. It's a hodge-podge of travel/love/adventure vignettes, loosely tied together and blurry in their direction. Pam is a thrill seeker, traveling the globe with assorted misfits and spiritual soul searchers. Her bohemian charisma is attractive, and I admire her stamina dealing with difficult people, and stubborn men. Certain 'stories' recall horrific plane rides, resulting in jilted passengers and new outlooks on life. Others recall extreme weather conditions, beauty in foreign countries and the intricacies of mixed families. I tried to love this book. The writing is certainly Pam, but I worry her brain has lost some of its previous focus. I am envious of how much healing she's done while participating in luxurious spa treatments. Loosely recommended, but I still eagerly await her next release.
October 11, 2011
Pam Houston is a magnificent writer. Her prose is beautiful and her ability to surprise the reader with a turn of phrase or a pithy comment is extraordinary. Those gifts are on full display in her new book.
Contents May Have Shifted is composed of 144 short pieces. All but 12 of the pieces are labelled with places. Many are exotic or at least intriguing like Tibet, Istanbul, Mallorca. Others are the territory that Pam Houston, the fictional narrator, and Pam Houston the writer inhabit like Crede, Denver and Boulder Colorado along with Davis, California. The other 12 pieces are named for flights UA#368 opens the book. To call this a novel is a bit out on a limb. These pieces largely work as short shorts. Many don't quite connect, especially in the beginning of the book, with the pieces that come before or after.
As Pam jumps from place to place in a never ending tour that would rival Bob Dylan's odyessey of the last 20 years, we are left trying to figure out an underlying plot and a purpose. It's clear that Houston is trying to find connections in all these places and it is also clear that she must be running away. The relationships come into better focus in the second half of the book and we see Pam trying to come to terms with a committed relationship.
What makes this book special are the individual pieces. They are beautiful. They glimmer, as Houston would say. She writes about place concisely and infuses her tales with great humor. I think to call this book a novel is a bit of a misnomer and forces the reader to think of it in a way that isn't in line with the book's strengths. I was reaching too hard for cohesion when it was better to just let the pieces wash over me. When I finally gave in and enjoyed meandering from place to place for the sake of it, the plot kicks in in a much more overt way and almost seems to get in the way of the travelling.
Pam Houston has always inhabited that world between fiction and nonfiction. Her stories are autobiographical and her essays sometimes read like tall tales. I think I would have liked a little more ambiguity in this book. I don't quite believe it's a novel even if I know that it isn't quite the truth.
Contents May Have Shifted is composed of 144 short pieces. All but 12 of the pieces are labelled with places. Many are exotic or at least intriguing like Tibet, Istanbul, Mallorca. Others are the territory that Pam Houston, the fictional narrator, and Pam Houston the writer inhabit like Crede, Denver and Boulder Colorado along with Davis, California. The other 12 pieces are named for flights UA#368 opens the book. To call this a novel is a bit out on a limb. These pieces largely work as short shorts. Many don't quite connect, especially in the beginning of the book, with the pieces that come before or after.
As Pam jumps from place to place in a never ending tour that would rival Bob Dylan's odyessey of the last 20 years, we are left trying to figure out an underlying plot and a purpose. It's clear that Houston is trying to find connections in all these places and it is also clear that she must be running away. The relationships come into better focus in the second half of the book and we see Pam trying to come to terms with a committed relationship.
What makes this book special are the individual pieces. They are beautiful. They glimmer, as Houston would say. She writes about place concisely and infuses her tales with great humor. I think to call this book a novel is a bit of a misnomer and forces the reader to think of it in a way that isn't in line with the book's strengths. I was reaching too hard for cohesion when it was better to just let the pieces wash over me. When I finally gave in and enjoyed meandering from place to place for the sake of it, the plot kicks in in a much more overt way and almost seems to get in the way of the travelling.
Pam Houston has always inhabited that world between fiction and nonfiction. Her stories are autobiographical and her essays sometimes read like tall tales. I think I would have liked a little more ambiguity in this book. I don't quite believe it's a novel even if I know that it isn't quite the truth.
March 18, 2012
This seems to be one of those books you are supposed to like, but I really did not. Though categorized as a novel, it is not. It is apparent that Ms. Houston is a very talented writer who has led an extremely interesting life. I just did not enjoy the tiny chapters, the sort of hipster references, and the overall vibe of the book. I had to force myself to finish it.
Guess I am just not as cool as the other people who have read this.
Guess I am just not as cool as the other people who have read this.
January 17, 2013
Whenever I am asked what my favorite novel is, Written on the Body immediately springs to mind. Seconds later, I start arguing with myself - throwing The Virgin Suicides into the mix. And so I reply with both.
I believe that there is now a third book that will join that fight. I may have to rattle off three titles whenever I am asked what my favorite novel is.
I have long been a fan of Pam Houston, loved her syncopation and her straightforward stabs at the real meanings behind our gender differences and differences in general. This book, though, takes her to a whole new level in my opinion. It is a thing of beauty, pure and heartwrenchingly real. A treatise on suicide and the reasons not to take that path, it never strays into the realm of the cliche, staying always honest to itself.
One small complaint: I think she is clinging a little too hard to the "romantic gender war" that made her such a popular writer. The men in this book, particularly in the early chapters, often seem like caricatures rather than actual men. It does change, though, as you get into the book further, but it is off-putting. What would normally be a large complaint for me, really pales next to the accomplishment that the book truly is.
A favorite quote:
"I'm beginning to understand that when we want to kill ourselves, it is not because we are lonely, but because we are trying to break up with the world before the world breaks up with us."
Like the rest of the novel, it is simple. But it gets to the heart of the matter succinctly. This book hit me pretty hard, got to me. It impressed me with how well it was written, but beyond that - it hit home.
Another quote said to the author that gets to the heart of the book and what it most likely is about (in my opinion) to the author herself:
"I don't think it is so much about the story anymore. I think it's about what kinds of possibilities are out there when you can finally stop telling the story."
I selfishly hope that Pam never stops telling the story. I want to listen to her rhythms and reasons for a long time to come.
I believe that there is now a third book that will join that fight. I may have to rattle off three titles whenever I am asked what my favorite novel is.
I have long been a fan of Pam Houston, loved her syncopation and her straightforward stabs at the real meanings behind our gender differences and differences in general. This book, though, takes her to a whole new level in my opinion. It is a thing of beauty, pure and heartwrenchingly real. A treatise on suicide and the reasons not to take that path, it never strays into the realm of the cliche, staying always honest to itself.
One small complaint: I think she is clinging a little too hard to the "romantic gender war" that made her such a popular writer. The men in this book, particularly in the early chapters, often seem like caricatures rather than actual men. It does change, though, as you get into the book further, but it is off-putting. What would normally be a large complaint for me, really pales next to the accomplishment that the book truly is.
A favorite quote:
"I'm beginning to understand that when we want to kill ourselves, it is not because we are lonely, but because we are trying to break up with the world before the world breaks up with us."
Like the rest of the novel, it is simple. But it gets to the heart of the matter succinctly. This book hit me pretty hard, got to me. It impressed me with how well it was written, but beyond that - it hit home.
Another quote said to the author that gets to the heart of the book and what it most likely is about (in my opinion) to the author herself:
"I don't think it is so much about the story anymore. I think it's about what kinds of possibilities are out there when you can finally stop telling the story."
I selfishly hope that Pam never stops telling the story. I want to listen to her rhythms and reasons for a long time to come.
March 1, 2012
Pam, the narrator of this absolutely fantastic book, can't seem to stay in one place. An author and writing instructor with little luck on the romantic front, the one thing she seems to have inherited from her dysfunctional parents is a sincere love of travel and a restlessness to explore.
Contents May Have Shifted follows Pam all over the world, from ranches and spas, to monasteries, religious shrines, hotels, and landmarks, in locations as diverse as the American Southwest, Alaska, Bhutan, Tibet, Laos, Spain, Scotland, Newfoundland, and Australia. Sometimes she travels with friends, sometimes colleagues, sometimes lovers (or ex-lovers), and sometimes she is trying to escape it all. And she has no shortage of flying-related complications, whether on a jet plane or a small turbo prop! Pam's (and Pam Houston's) tremendous appreciation for wherever she is and whomever she is with, no matter the circumstances, is both heartwarming and, at times, heartbreaking, but moving all the same.
While this book hooked me from start to finish, especially since the sphere of my personal travel experiences is so narrow, I give you one warning: this book is not told in a linear way, so as it jumps from place to place, it jumps from time to time. Sometimes she's with one partner, sometimes another, and sometimes she's simply dealing with friends and their issues. I think it's a true testament to Houston's skills as a writer that she's able to present such a full story through short snippets told out of temporal order. If you can suspend your need for order and just give in to this book about the joy of travel and relationships, you will love it as much as I did. And if you want more Pam Houston, I highly recommend her short story collections Cowboys are My Weakness and Waltzing the Cat.
Contents May Have Shifted follows Pam all over the world, from ranches and spas, to monasteries, religious shrines, hotels, and landmarks, in locations as diverse as the American Southwest, Alaska, Bhutan, Tibet, Laos, Spain, Scotland, Newfoundland, and Australia. Sometimes she travels with friends, sometimes colleagues, sometimes lovers (or ex-lovers), and sometimes she is trying to escape it all. And she has no shortage of flying-related complications, whether on a jet plane or a small turbo prop! Pam's (and Pam Houston's) tremendous appreciation for wherever she is and whomever she is with, no matter the circumstances, is both heartwarming and, at times, heartbreaking, but moving all the same.
While this book hooked me from start to finish, especially since the sphere of my personal travel experiences is so narrow, I give you one warning: this book is not told in a linear way, so as it jumps from place to place, it jumps from time to time. Sometimes she's with one partner, sometimes another, and sometimes she's simply dealing with friends and their issues. I think it's a true testament to Houston's skills as a writer that she's able to present such a full story through short snippets told out of temporal order. If you can suspend your need for order and just give in to this book about the joy of travel and relationships, you will love it as much as I did. And if you want more Pam Houston, I highly recommend her short story collections Cowboys are My Weakness and Waltzing the Cat.
March 12, 2014
I had such high expectations for this and was so disappointed. I could deal with the format - disjointed, choppy, confusing. I could deal with the main character of the "novel" being a woman named Pam who teaches writing. I could even deal with the whiny unlikable boyfriends, which in turn make it difficult to like the narrator. But I could not deal with all three. It was just too much to accept from an author who I believe to be incredibly talented. I've read essays by Houston that have left me shocked and elated with her clarity and the beauty of her prose. I was hoping for that here.
I'm still glad that she wrote the book. She's reaching for something new and unique and I think that's always a good thing. Even in this book (which I cannot honestly recommend), she shows off her talent (in my opinion, especially in regard to place). Unfortunately, the other aspects of the novel are too much of a detriment for it to pull through.
I'm still glad that she wrote the book. She's reaching for something new and unique and I think that's always a good thing. Even in this book (which I cannot honestly recommend), she shows off her talent (in my opinion, especially in regard to place). Unfortunately, the other aspects of the novel are too much of a detriment for it to pull through.
March 19, 2012
The word that you probably cannot read in the little heart-shaped cloud on the book cover is "novel." I point this out because this book reads like the most funky and creative memoir ever. Adding to this misinterpretation is that the narrator of the book is also named Pam, also is a Creative Writing teacher in California, and also owns a ranch in Colorado. But the cloud on the back of the book says "fiction," so there ya go. Apparently not every word included here is true, but it would be an amazing memoir if it were!
The structure of the book took some getting used to for me. There are well over 100 short vignettes that are used to tell Pam's story, but the reader has to do some work to figure out what makes Pam the unique person she is. We find out early on that she loves to travel, as many of the vignettes carry as a chapter title the flight number of a particular plane. What they have in common is that something goes awry either mechanically or meterologically on seemingly every plane trip she takes, but her desire to travel trumps the fear factor every time.
There does not appear to be a lot to connect one vignette to the next as the time and place and people included are likely to be totally different in succeeding chapters (which look for all the world like journal entries, i.e., short, and with the assumption that the reader is already connected to whatever came before). After awhile though, the reader begins to pick up a theme or two and start to recognize that some of the players are repeats; therefore worth paying more attention to. Pam is a woman searching for love, for adventure, for validation, for a spiritual dimension to her life.
She connects with some very interesting and exotic people along the way and picks up bits of wisdom in some very out of the way places. She finally sheds the guy that she thinks might be the one, except that he keeps a photo of his own great love (not Pam) in his glove box. After several hilariously described blind dates, she meets a Texan that she really clicks with. The only thing is that he still is the emotional property of his ex and his 6 year old daughter. Pam and Rick, the Texan, invest an enormous amount of time and travel miles in building a relationship with ample depth and trust. This also includes a surprisingly deep love and affection that Pam feels for Rick's daughter Madison.
Author Pam Houston has a great ear for dialog and a sense of humor to match. The working title of this book was "144 Reasons Not to Commit Suicide," but the title, Contents May Have Shifted embraces both the travel aspect and the emotional journey that Pam makes very effectively, I think.
The structure of the book took some getting used to for me. There are well over 100 short vignettes that are used to tell Pam's story, but the reader has to do some work to figure out what makes Pam the unique person she is. We find out early on that she loves to travel, as many of the vignettes carry as a chapter title the flight number of a particular plane. What they have in common is that something goes awry either mechanically or meterologically on seemingly every plane trip she takes, but her desire to travel trumps the fear factor every time.
There does not appear to be a lot to connect one vignette to the next as the time and place and people included are likely to be totally different in succeeding chapters (which look for all the world like journal entries, i.e., short, and with the assumption that the reader is already connected to whatever came before). After awhile though, the reader begins to pick up a theme or two and start to recognize that some of the players are repeats; therefore worth paying more attention to. Pam is a woman searching for love, for adventure, for validation, for a spiritual dimension to her life.
She connects with some very interesting and exotic people along the way and picks up bits of wisdom in some very out of the way places. She finally sheds the guy that she thinks might be the one, except that he keeps a photo of his own great love (not Pam) in his glove box. After several hilariously described blind dates, she meets a Texan that she really clicks with. The only thing is that he still is the emotional property of his ex and his 6 year old daughter. Pam and Rick, the Texan, invest an enormous amount of time and travel miles in building a relationship with ample depth and trust. This also includes a surprisingly deep love and affection that Pam feels for Rick's daughter Madison.
Author Pam Houston has a great ear for dialog and a sense of humor to match. The working title of this book was "144 Reasons Not to Commit Suicide," but the title, Contents May Have Shifted embraces both the travel aspect and the emotional journey that Pam makes very effectively, I think.
March 23, 2013
I quickly learned that I needed to take sips of “Contents May Have Shifted” with my morning coffee when my mind was alert and better able to catch the nuances in Houston's writing. It didn't work to read it at bedtime. A friend who also read the book said, “Houston asks a lot of the reader.” Yes, this is true, and I think that readers who are willing to give the book the kind of attention it requires will be rewarded. Perhaps it was the power of suggestion in the title, but as I read further into the book, my sensibility shifted. I fell into Houston's rhythm, the cadence of her sentences, the thwack of the mini chapters, the lyricism of the description which was slippery with metaphor. She is witty and her parody and irony are ferocious. When I finished this book, I wanted to get copies to a bunch of women I though would enjoy it as much as I did--this coming from someone who rarely buys books for others because I generally feel that choosing a book is a very personal thing. But darn it, I want to share this delicious read and hope my favorite reading friends will find it.
April 4, 2021
Here are two things that might happen to you when you are reading the first twenty pages of this book: you might think, 'hey, whoa, how the hell am I supposed to keep track of all this when it is not written as tidily as I have come to expect from a novel' and your mind might stubbornly resist; and you might think, 'hey, whoa, there is an AWFUL LOT of autobiographical parallels here, maybe too much for me to accept that this is a novel at all,' and your mind might wander along paths of trying to decide which things happened IN REAL LIFE and which are JUST MADE UP.
Really it is better for everybody if you just get past all that. All you have to do is jump into the current here, and let the lovely river whoosh you along. Full of beautiful writing and details--such details!--and once you surrender, the main risk is going to be overtaxing your budget because you will need to travel to exotic places and get a lot of massages ASAP.
Really it is better for everybody if you just get past all that. All you have to do is jump into the current here, and let the lovely river whoosh you along. Full of beautiful writing and details--such details!--and once you surrender, the main risk is going to be overtaxing your budget because you will need to travel to exotic places and get a lot of massages ASAP.
May 3, 2013
After reading 108 pages, I realized I wasn't learning anything new from this book, unless it was that the author either had a very interesting job that enabled her to travel a lot or she had a trust fund and was just going where the wind blew her. I did enjoy the descriptions of places that I have not been but, other than that, there just isn't much that makes me want to read more. Part of it may be her jumping around from place to year to whatever and back again. I think this is a book that maybe her family would enjoy more than strangers. I really hate to give up on a book but there are so many really good books "out there" that I want to read and I'm getting older day by day so I need to make wise choices.
Read
September 13, 2024I gave this one a pretty good shot. I had some notes, but lost them. Basically these are fictionalized essays based on her travels and life. I much preferred her actual memoir. My review of that is here:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show... 4 stars! Read that one, is my advice.
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show... 4 stars! Read that one, is my advice.
May 2, 2018
Very good story about a middle-aged creative writing instructor and outdoorswoman leading her life. The story unfolds in a series of vignettes - I thought that would annoy me, but it actually worked really well. Make sure you have a copy with the reading group guide in the back, so you can read "The Author on Her Work" after reading the book - it satisfyingly answered my questions about the story. :)
February 23, 2012
I went to hear Pam Houston read in Berkeley on February 20. It was delightful, and I appreciated when she said that we are a culture so interested in categorizing--novel, prose poetry, fiction, non-fiction.
I liked this book a lot, perhaps more than any book besides "Cowboys." But "Cowboys" maybe only because of where I was in my life when I read it. However, I think this is a book that might require multiple readings, and could in fact become my favorite book. However, I probably should not have read all the interchapters about plane failure.
Some gorgeous lines:
"Maybe the real reason I haven't wanted a child all these years is because when you hurt for them when they are hurting it is the hardest hurting of all."
"If one more fifty-year-old man tells me he would like to disappear into South America for a while with nothing in his truck but a whole lot of blank paper I think I will kill myself."
"She wasn't ready and then I wasn't ready and then we were finally both ready on the same day."--in response to the dying of her wolfhound.
"Anyone who has no monkey probably has a rat."
"I might be able to suck up all of my hurt feelings, if it meant I didn't have to listen to yours."
z'
I liked this book a lot, perhaps more than any book besides "Cowboys." But "Cowboys" maybe only because of where I was in my life when I read it. However, I think this is a book that might require multiple readings, and could in fact become my favorite book. However, I probably should not have read all the interchapters about plane failure.
Some gorgeous lines:
"Maybe the real reason I haven't wanted a child all these years is because when you hurt for them when they are hurting it is the hardest hurting of all."
"If one more fifty-year-old man tells me he would like to disappear into South America for a while with nothing in his truck but a whole lot of blank paper I think I will kill myself."
"She wasn't ready and then I wasn't ready and then we were finally both ready on the same day."--in response to the dying of her wolfhound.
"Anyone who has no monkey probably has a rat."
"I might be able to suck up all of my hurt feelings, if it meant I didn't have to listen to yours."
z'
January 14, 2014
I have loved Pam Houston since Cowboys Are My Weakness, and had high expectations for Contents May Have Shifted. I really wanted to love this book, bought a hardcover because I expected to keep it. Instead I am disappointed in the self-indulgent narrator and stream-of-consciousness writing style. I loved the format of each chapter taking place in a different location of the world, and when I read the jacket copy that it was originally conceived as "144 reasons not to commit suicide" I understood the disjointed nature of it better. But I didn't feel I learned much about the narrator's story arc, lots of whining about boyfriends and their girl friends or ex-wives, and what feels like boasting about her world travels and the exclusive places she has been. I almost felt like the narrator was looking down her nose at a poor slob like me who only goes to work every day, makes a good wage at a good job, but must live such a boring sheltered life. There were some shining moments, like when the Laotian guide explains why he is so nice to the Americans, "when you do something nice for somebody, it is just like walking around a temple. it is like saying a prayer." And the book finished strong, but it was basically a chore to get through. And that is very disappointing.
November 13, 2020
I recently read Cowboys are my Weakness, and loved it . I decided too read the other books she has written. This from another review pretty much sums it up for me :
" A random idea is started, then the next paragraph goes off to some conversation or vignette that's, in my mind, unrelated. " Thank you !
I thought I was the only one. Try as I might half way through it went on my abandoned shelf.
It read in some senseless rambling fashion. Started with a good idea or an interesting location and fell on its face. It wasn't until I picked up another book that I could read with ease and flow that I realized her thoughts just do not connect in this book. Sorry :(
" A random idea is started, then the next paragraph goes off to some conversation or vignette that's, in my mind, unrelated. " Thank you !
I thought I was the only one. Try as I might half way through it went on my abandoned shelf.
It read in some senseless rambling fashion. Started with a good idea or an interesting location and fell on its face. It wasn't until I picked up another book that I could read with ease and flow that I realized her thoughts just do not connect in this book. Sorry :(
March 19, 2016
Oh, there's no doubt that Pam Houston can write, and write well. However, passing off this hodgepodge of pretty (and sometimes petty) excerpts from her travel, relationship, and dream journals as a "novel" was too much for me to swallow. Although she does keep circling back to the course of one of her many relationships more than the others, that seems a very weak skeleton to hang the remaining flesh of her new-age journeys, both in and out of many countries, punctuated by some very scary plane trips (but no true disasters). Avoid.
January 10, 2017
Finally put down this book for good about half-way through. While I enjoyed her style of writing and her humor, ultimately the story line became increasingly loopy with too many characters requiring more effort than I wanted to expend. Not sure I'll read any of the others that I put on my to-read list.
April 14, 2012
This was a book I think I should have liked, but ended up just skimming through. The author clearly has great imagination, but I found the vignettes a bit too ungrounded. A book to go back to sometime.
July 14, 2013
I’ve long believed that the worth of a book lies not in what the book is about but how it is about it. I would apply this to all forms of art, storytelling, and entertainment in general, but for the point of this review we’ll stick with books. The more reading I do the more I grow to understand that the worth of a book cannot actually be placed so firmly on one thing alone. So I’ve reached the unavoidable conclusion that it’s what a book is about, how it is about it, and some added nebulous concept of who you are and where you are in your life at the moment you are reading it that determines a book’s worth. In Contents May have Shifted by Pam Houston, I found a book that has a lot of how and no real what and the outcome is simultaneously wonderful and disappointing.
This is the only book by Pam Houston that I’ve read, and if this is any indication of her overall abilities, then I feel very confident in saying she’s a great writer but I’m not sure she’s all that great of a storyteller. Even as a collection of creative non-fiction I can’t say that this is the best I’ve ever read, but it’s still wonderfully well written. Houston’s turn of phrase is great, her “characters” are often very interesting and their voices are always vividly portrayed, and there are sections, lines, sentences, and entire paragraphs within this book that made me laugh out loud, stop and think, or even tear up a bit. What the book failed to inspire in me was a desire to keep turning the page to see what comes next. There were moments within this book where I would throw my head back in laughter and then look down to see that I still had over 100 pages left to read and groan in exasperation. Towards the end I found myself skipping entire sections just to move things along as I felt that they didn’t have anything new or interesting to say about the “characters” or life or the world in general that hadn’t already been said in the previous 90 sections. I also felt like Houston’s vignettes were oddly specific in a manner that left me feeling very left out from them. I couldn’t see myself in her stories—her revelations. I didn’t feel as though her stories were universal enough to be able to see an experience akin to mine reflected back to me. Her cast of friends/characters are diverse enough to see that she knows a lot of different people (and to be sure I was very pleased by the presence of LGBT people and people of color within the pages), but I still couldn’t craft enough of a connection to anyone to feel satisfied.
In the end, I was left with the thought that Contents May have Shifted reads like a collection of exceptionally well written journal entries; it feels a lot like looking through someone else’s photo album: the memories are nice and sometimes poignant, but if I’m not in any of the pictures, then it can be a bit difficult to really care.
This is the only book by Pam Houston that I’ve read, and if this is any indication of her overall abilities, then I feel very confident in saying she’s a great writer but I’m not sure she’s all that great of a storyteller. Even as a collection of creative non-fiction I can’t say that this is the best I’ve ever read, but it’s still wonderfully well written. Houston’s turn of phrase is great, her “characters” are often very interesting and their voices are always vividly portrayed, and there are sections, lines, sentences, and entire paragraphs within this book that made me laugh out loud, stop and think, or even tear up a bit. What the book failed to inspire in me was a desire to keep turning the page to see what comes next. There were moments within this book where I would throw my head back in laughter and then look down to see that I still had over 100 pages left to read and groan in exasperation. Towards the end I found myself skipping entire sections just to move things along as I felt that they didn’t have anything new or interesting to say about the “characters” or life or the world in general that hadn’t already been said in the previous 90 sections. I also felt like Houston’s vignettes were oddly specific in a manner that left me feeling very left out from them. I couldn’t see myself in her stories—her revelations. I didn’t feel as though her stories were universal enough to be able to see an experience akin to mine reflected back to me. Her cast of friends/characters are diverse enough to see that she knows a lot of different people (and to be sure I was very pleased by the presence of LGBT people and people of color within the pages), but I still couldn’t craft enough of a connection to anyone to feel satisfied.
In the end, I was left with the thought that Contents May have Shifted reads like a collection of exceptionally well written journal entries; it feels a lot like looking through someone else’s photo album: the memories are nice and sometimes poignant, but if I’m not in any of the pictures, then it can be a bit difficult to really care.
February 4, 2017
I had quite a slog getting through this book, but I wanted to give the author every chance. But I think the 144 short chapters didn't go anywhere for me. I don't understand the point of writing about locations - Alaska, Tunisia, New Zealand, Colorado, Laos etc. etc to name just a few, but then to jumble up all the chapters about the same place throughout the book. It's the same with characters and thoughts - they're mentioned without any explanation of whether they're people or animals or what their relationship is, and most are dropped never to appear again. A random idea is started, then the next paragraph goes off to some conversation or vignette that's, in my mind, unrelated. Sorry, just didn't 'get' or enjoy it.
October 29, 2012
Pam Houston has one of the best voices around. On the page, she can be tender, hilarious, plaintive, shrewd, and incisive by turns. I really enjoyed the structure of this book (144 short "glimmers" or microfictions of a sort). The narrator, "Pam" takes us around the world on a series of internal and external journeys that explore love, loss, heritage, friendship and more. Each section is wonderfully balanced and flavored. And I relished the dozens of locales...from Alaska to Tunisia to Laos. A lively read--wonderfully written, full of heart and soul.
February 18, 2015
I'm sorry, but this is not a novel. I think Pam Houston is a gifted writer, but this whole book, despite its moments of beauty, just felt like a bunch of whining to me. "Poor me, I have to suffer through all these new age healers looking into my psyche while I'm vacationing in all the exotic corners of the world, and I have a bunch of great friends who love me, and I have to get on airplanes all the time to see them and go on adventures with them." Stick to short stories, please, and don't try to dress up a bunch of angst-riddled journaling as a novel.
January 26, 2015
Whew. Could *not* get into this collection? novella? self-indulgent bundle of random ideas? by Houston. I liked Cowboys are My Weakness, but this one. . . whew. I tried a few times, but her voice seemed arrogant and pretentious, like a ninth grade student who tells me, "My writing is brilliant. It's my reader's job to figure out my meaning." I was working from my "Beach Reads with Brains and Bite" list, so too much anxiety about not liking something was not on the agenda. Back to the library with you, Houston!
October 9, 2019
As I was unpacking boxes that I hadn't touched in 3 years since I moved, I came across this book that I had wanted to read. It took me 3 weeks but I got through it. It sounded like it would be a fun travel novel, but I was disappointed. It definitely has snippets of her travels but I wasn't excited about it. She touches on being molested as a young girl until at least her teens which was sad and upsetting. She is traveling around with a boyfriend who doesn't seem a good fit for her (I looked her up now on the internet and am happy she seems to be with a better guy). Just wasn't my cup of tea
October 17, 2012
Didn't get the point of this book. There is nothing about it that feels like a novel, in that there is no plot, no storyline etc. (at least not before I threw in the towel.) The book is comprised of random thoughts about nothing in particular outside of geographic regions visited. I lasted about an hour. Just awful.
April 3, 2014
Excellent writing, but... A series of vignettes that are supposed to add up to a heavily autobiographical novel. The message seems to be one of looking for meaning in life, looking for home, looking for peace never quite found. To me, it comes off close to whining about how difficult it is to be an intelligent, well-to-do writer from whom that still isn't quite enough.
November 8, 2017
Read Sight Hound and absolutely loved it, if this was the first book of hers that I read I would not be looking for any of her other books. Kept with it thinking I would get into its rhythm and just felt nothing. Annoying
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