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Don't Stand In Line: A Memoir
When a young girl learns there is more to life than inner city Chicago, a child of Polish immigrants sets out to create her own American dream with one question in mind-what does it take to be extraordinary? Gerda Barker finds art, marries a rock star, and becomes one of few female criminal defense lawyers in Chicago. Along the way she will find if she has what it takes to follow her American dream.
536 pages, Paperback
Published April 24, 2023
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
May 1, 2023
I love this book. The author candidly observes events and people, pivotal in her life so far, in rich detail while still giving the reader something to do in terms of imagination. It captures a particular time in Chicago during the 1980s reflecting the unique music scene developing at that time and the characters populating it. This book is still spinning around my mind a week after reading the final page.
June 3, 2023
One of the best book titles ever!
Well written; very interesting- partly because I knew the author many years ago. I am seriously impressed that she was such a devoted mother to her children- I applaud her!
Well written; very interesting- partly because I knew the author many years ago. I am seriously impressed that she was such a devoted mother to her children- I applaud her!
May 25, 2024
I'll admit I just haven't read too many memoirs. Maybe I was conditioned to think it was nothing but onanistic ramblings about the 'salad days', the good times! I typically have such a short attention span for the genre as a whole. Now, plotz me next to a stranger at a dive bar who morosely spins tales of their life with all of its trials and travails? I'm there, and I'll even pick up the tab if they keep talking.
Getting memories to translate into words takes a decisiveness and ruthless, honest introspection that many just aren't capable of doing. That's why it's misleading, this business of writing one's memoir. Triaging memories and experiences into stories that will appeal to hoi polloi?
It isn't easy. Gerda Barker does this with aplomb.
The memoirs I've read include 'Do I Come Here Often?' by Henry Rollins and several of Patti Smith's books, both titans of the music industry who also happen to have rapier wit and are stellar observers of human nature.
Without giving away parts of the book (read it, don't be a pant load) what struck me the most was Barker's ability to make you nostalgic for memories that aren't even yours. I know, it sounds weird because it is. Her warmth in describing the cast of characters in her life, a soul tribe, not just 'famous people! rock stars!' resonates throughout. Like my beloved PATTI! (insert Mapplethorpe sighing 'Oh, Patti, here), Barker walks the tightrope of a detached bemusement coupled with genuine joy and awe that.... this was just her life. It's a glimpse behind the curtain of the more personal side of things not just the linear, simpering bleatings of scene acolytes and assorted hangers on... this memoir affords the reader a refreshingly accessible view of the flipside of people in the scene. 'The Softer Side of SEARS'!
What I appreciate is the consistency in her writing. It's not a guaranteed thing, especially as this is her first book. And about that... I've heard the saying 'There's a book in everyone'.
SURE, JAN! But, in this case I can see enough material for a second book. And it doesn't even have to be about this... she's an astute enough writer than you know there are other stories (side quests, if you will)
The people she encountered, all talented and like a Fellini open casting call were fascinating to read about even if you aren't familiar with Chicago and the Wax Trax days.
I saw parallels between Smith's account of living at Hotel Chelsea when she was at the precipice of something seismic - culturally and musically. Barker very much had the same experience but in Chicago. Her husband, Paul Barker everyone knows as the guitarist in Ministry and also Revolting Cocks (with other projects later on). This isn't some tepid 'I'm with the band' shit, either. She worked at Wax Trax during its heyday and also become a criminal defense attorney. The child of Polish immigrants, she made her own way and did her own thing.
She was, as the saying goes, 'unimpressed' which I'm sure is why she fit in perfectly with this scene. This isn't another fatuous book about famous people. It's a textured documentary that is a must read for anyone who loves music, especially industrial. Full disclosure: When I moved back to Chicago as a sprog, I used to sneak into venues that played that genre (Shout out to Medusas and anyone else who almost died on that fucking death drop of a stairwell) and I was locked in for good. It's been my favorite genre since I was a teenager. Wax Trax was ground zero. Barker got to work there and met her old man there. HUG AND SQUISH THEM.
Fun photos in the book, you'll love those too. Sidenote: I have no earthly idea how they've all aged beautifully considering, you know, rock star life. #Vampires though
Also, I have another aside before finishing here. The title 'Don't Stand in Line'... while most of us were haplessly perfecting our banana bread loaves, googling exes, drinking like Dylan Thomas and binging on Netflix during covid lockdown, this book was born. The title was the author's musing why the hell people stood in line for hours just waiting to get into a restaurant. I laughed at this because this is personal vexation of mine. I experienced it deeply when I lived in Wicker Park and used to marvel at mouth breathers blandly standing in lines, snaking all the way down the block (Narrows eyes at 'Bongo Room- the food was 'mid', as my teenagers would say) or any brunch place in any middle-class white neighborhood.
Barker is a raconteur (a descriptor that makes me dry heave when seen in a social media 'bio', but is apt here)
and even if you don't know 'What a Wax Trax is' (jokes! I like jokes) you'll tear through this thoroughly entertained.
Getting memories to translate into words takes a decisiveness and ruthless, honest introspection that many just aren't capable of doing. That's why it's misleading, this business of writing one's memoir. Triaging memories and experiences into stories that will appeal to hoi polloi?
It isn't easy. Gerda Barker does this with aplomb.
The memoirs I've read include 'Do I Come Here Often?' by Henry Rollins and several of Patti Smith's books, both titans of the music industry who also happen to have rapier wit and are stellar observers of human nature.
Without giving away parts of the book (read it, don't be a pant load) what struck me the most was Barker's ability to make you nostalgic for memories that aren't even yours. I know, it sounds weird because it is. Her warmth in describing the cast of characters in her life, a soul tribe, not just 'famous people! rock stars!' resonates throughout. Like my beloved PATTI! (insert Mapplethorpe sighing 'Oh, Patti, here), Barker walks the tightrope of a detached bemusement coupled with genuine joy and awe that.... this was just her life. It's a glimpse behind the curtain of the more personal side of things not just the linear, simpering bleatings of scene acolytes and assorted hangers on... this memoir affords the reader a refreshingly accessible view of the flipside of people in the scene. 'The Softer Side of SEARS'!
What I appreciate is the consistency in her writing. It's not a guaranteed thing, especially as this is her first book. And about that... I've heard the saying 'There's a book in everyone'.
SURE, JAN! But, in this case I can see enough material for a second book. And it doesn't even have to be about this... she's an astute enough writer than you know there are other stories (side quests, if you will)
The people she encountered, all talented and like a Fellini open casting call were fascinating to read about even if you aren't familiar with Chicago and the Wax Trax days.
I saw parallels between Smith's account of living at Hotel Chelsea when she was at the precipice of something seismic - culturally and musically. Barker very much had the same experience but in Chicago. Her husband, Paul Barker everyone knows as the guitarist in Ministry and also Revolting Cocks (with other projects later on). This isn't some tepid 'I'm with the band' shit, either. She worked at Wax Trax during its heyday and also become a criminal defense attorney. The child of Polish immigrants, she made her own way and did her own thing.
She was, as the saying goes, 'unimpressed' which I'm sure is why she fit in perfectly with this scene. This isn't another fatuous book about famous people. It's a textured documentary that is a must read for anyone who loves music, especially industrial. Full disclosure: When I moved back to Chicago as a sprog, I used to sneak into venues that played that genre (Shout out to Medusas and anyone else who almost died on that fucking death drop of a stairwell) and I was locked in for good. It's been my favorite genre since I was a teenager. Wax Trax was ground zero. Barker got to work there and met her old man there. HUG AND SQUISH THEM.
Fun photos in the book, you'll love those too. Sidenote: I have no earthly idea how they've all aged beautifully considering, you know, rock star life. #Vampires though
Also, I have another aside before finishing here. The title 'Don't Stand in Line'... while most of us were haplessly perfecting our banana bread loaves, googling exes, drinking like Dylan Thomas and binging on Netflix during covid lockdown, this book was born. The title was the author's musing why the hell people stood in line for hours just waiting to get into a restaurant. I laughed at this because this is personal vexation of mine. I experienced it deeply when I lived in Wicker Park and used to marvel at mouth breathers blandly standing in lines, snaking all the way down the block (Narrows eyes at 'Bongo Room- the food was 'mid', as my teenagers would say) or any brunch place in any middle-class white neighborhood.
Barker is a raconteur (a descriptor that makes me dry heave when seen in a social media 'bio', but is apt here)
and even if you don't know 'What a Wax Trax is' (jokes! I like jokes) you'll tear through this thoroughly entertained.
May 15, 2023
'Don't Stand In Line' begins with precocious young Gerda Serba growing up on Chicago's Northwest side during the rich era of the 60s and 70s. Even as a child she knows there's significantly more going on outside her neighborhood than her immigrant parents can shield her from, a world she only reads about in the pages of Vogue. Accordingly when she finally leaves the nest she finds herself within a fascinating circle of friends, the new generation of the city's music, art and literary scenes, as well as cadging a job at the legendary Wax Trax! store in its early years on Lincoln Avenue. This is a page-turner of a memoir, sweeping along on an ever-faster ride that over the years includes Gerda marrying Paul Barker of industrial music kingpins Ministry, while also becoming one of the Windy City's handful of female criminal defense lawyers. There's detail and texture in spades, and a swelling cast of characters, observed and set down precisely in Barker's calm, cool paragraphs. Hesitation toward new adventures isn't really her mode, and part of the pleasure of reading 'Don't Stand In Line' is her adherence to an early epiphany: "This is what it's all about, I thought. Let's keep going." Yep, let's.
October 10, 2024
I really liked this but it cut off much too soon. I was hoping to hear more about Paul and Gerda’s dealings with Angela “Angie Jay” Lukacin, the litigious screech owl and Dunning-Kruger effect poster child who became the second Mrs. Jourgensen and threatened to sue everyone her husband had ever worked with.
(One can assume the threats to sue Bill Rieflin and Chris Connelly never materialized, though, because an actual lawyer probably told the Jourgensens that you cannot sue someone just because you’re butthurt.)
(One can assume the threats to sue Bill Rieflin and Chris Connelly never materialized, though, because an actual lawyer probably told the Jourgensens that you cannot sue someone just because you’re butthurt.)
June 26, 2023
This book is so compelling! The pace is perfect, never dwelling on one thing too long, because there's so much life experience packed into this book. I am originally from Chicago, which is what attracted me to this book, and she really brings the city to life in my mind. I have cried twice already, because there's a lot of emotion in this book, but I've also laughed. It's a very easy read, and it's hard to put down.
May 15, 2023
Such a well written entertaining book from the life of a rockstar’s wife who incidentally is a lot more than that , as Gerda Barker was also a criminal defense attorney too and a mother. Whether you were part of the crazy Wax Trax! world or not, I promise you will laugh, gasp and a whole lot more.
So just read it!
So just read it!
October 11, 2023
Gerda's recollections of the escalation of Ministry and her falling in love with Paul and all their adventures is a compelling read It describes in vast detail her thoughts and actions of how she managed to raise a family in the mayhem that follows Al Jourgensen. I would have liked better closure at the end, but it is what it is.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews