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The Same Dead Songs: a memoir of working-class addictions
"If you're working class, you understand that no one understands you." Dave Newman's fierce and jittery memoir reveals, in unsanitized detail and naked, smart reflection, the story of a working class casualty--or near casualty--that a less honest, less inquisitive writer might avoid. In this exquisitely paced, wrenchingly beautiful tale of addictions, of needing help, of helping and not helping, of fighting and surviving, of the will and wonder and work of loving hard, of brokenness and the precarious impulse to apply the glue and clamp ourselves back together, Newman proves that he is beyond truth-seeker. He is a truth be-er. The Same Dead Songs is a darkly enjoyable, heart-opening schooling.
--Nancy Krygowski, The Woman In The Corner
--Nancy Krygowski, The Woman In The Corner
166 pages, Paperback
Published March 23, 2023
13 people want to read
About the author
Dave Newman
7 books53 followersDave Newman is the author of seven books, including The Same Dead Songs (J.New Books, 2023), East Pittsburgh Downlow (J. New Books, 2019), The Poem Factory (White Gorilla Press, 2015), the novels Raymond Carver Will Not Raise Our Children (Writers Tribe Books, 2012), Two Small Birds (Writers Tribe Books, 2014), Please Don’t Shoot Anyone Tonight (World Parade, 2010) and the collection The Slaughterhouse Poems (White Gorilla Press, 2013), named one of the best books of the year by L Magazine. His stories, essays, and reviews have appeared in Gulf Stream, Vol. 1 Brooklyn, Belt, the legendary Nerve Cowboy, Smokelong Quarterly, Ambit (U.K.), Tears in the Fence (U.K.), The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, and many other places. He appeared in the PBS documentary narrated by Rick Sebak about Pittsburgh writers. Winner of numerous awards, including the Andre Dubus Novella Prize, he lives in Trafford, PA, the last town in the Electric Valley, with his wife, the writer Lori Jakiela, and their two children. After years of working in medical research, serving elders, he now teaches writing at The University of Pittsburgh-Greensburg.
www.davenewmanwritesbooks.net
www.davenewmanwritesbooks.net
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
April 5, 2024
The writer known as “The Pittsburgh Poet” has done it again, and this time it’s a memoir. “The Same Dead Songs: A Memoir of Working-Class Addictions” is exactly that, and the renowned poet does not disappoint. The book begins with a visit from Anthony, an old family friend of the author’s brother and an addict who never outgrew his partying days of the nineteen-eighties. He shows up one day on the author’s doorstep, while the author is stuck in Pittsburgh traffic. The author’s wife knows Anthony, but not well enough. So, he is quickly summoned home.
Newman describes the geography of western Pennsylvania, his home, poignantly. It is a place that has left its unfortunate mark but has also left its mark on his heart as well. He writes; “I live here with a love inherent but also with a love that requires great effort. I live here to write about it, to say this place matters.” He elaborates; “When I walk, I know where I walk. When I want something new, I walk farther.”
Through imagery, Newman illustrates the hardships of the working-class culture of western Pennsylvania. The closing of steel mills and factories, layoffs, the consistent pollution, and a way of life where one is taught to strive for better, therefore conflicting with home and heart being one and the same. Newman’s writing is bold, fresh, and on point, quickly easing the reader into a comfort zone.
He also illustrates his youth during his high-school days of the eighties. He relates being a teen ager, prone to fighting and experimentation with alcohol and drugs. The same dead songs filling the background are nostalgic to readers of the same age. But Newman also describes this time as just that, teenage years that were temporary and how he, like many people moved on from this stage in their lives. And some, like Anthony, did not, and could not.
In present day, the author portrays himself as a family man with a wife a two children. He describes being a published writer and a part-time professor and performing odd jobs in between. He has also been a truck driver. His wife is a full-time professor in a higher standing position, which he doesn’t mind. He gets to be a stay-at-home Dad and spend time with his children.
All is well. The past is in the past, until Anthony shows up once again on his doorstep. “He was thin, with the eyes of an alcoholic. When he breathed, you could hear it,” Newman writes. Newman credits his wife for her level of compassion. She feeds Anthony, allows him to stay in the basement, but soon Anthony drinks all of the household beer stash, doesn’t eat, and the author struggles to explain his presence to his two small children.
Through Anthony’s stay, Newman is able to realize and articulate his thoughts as to why someone like Anthony never moved past the turbulence of those teenage years. He figures it out one night as he’s driving Anthony to the bus station to find his next hangout. He is drunk in the front seat and singing the same dead songs of the eighties perfectly. It all becomes somewhat clear. Anthony is not completely responsible for his addictions, and he is one of many.
Newman’s book is a captivating memoir that examines the reality of everyday life in western Pennsylvania and the circumstances it brings to those who must but can’t endure it. It is nostalgic, funny, and sometimes sad, and a fast moving, page-turning memoir.
Newman describes the geography of western Pennsylvania, his home, poignantly. It is a place that has left its unfortunate mark but has also left its mark on his heart as well. He writes; “I live here with a love inherent but also with a love that requires great effort. I live here to write about it, to say this place matters.” He elaborates; “When I walk, I know where I walk. When I want something new, I walk farther.”
Through imagery, Newman illustrates the hardships of the working-class culture of western Pennsylvania. The closing of steel mills and factories, layoffs, the consistent pollution, and a way of life where one is taught to strive for better, therefore conflicting with home and heart being one and the same. Newman’s writing is bold, fresh, and on point, quickly easing the reader into a comfort zone.
He also illustrates his youth during his high-school days of the eighties. He relates being a teen ager, prone to fighting and experimentation with alcohol and drugs. The same dead songs filling the background are nostalgic to readers of the same age. But Newman also describes this time as just that, teenage years that were temporary and how he, like many people moved on from this stage in their lives. And some, like Anthony, did not, and could not.
In present day, the author portrays himself as a family man with a wife a two children. He describes being a published writer and a part-time professor and performing odd jobs in between. He has also been a truck driver. His wife is a full-time professor in a higher standing position, which he doesn’t mind. He gets to be a stay-at-home Dad and spend time with his children.
All is well. The past is in the past, until Anthony shows up once again on his doorstep. “He was thin, with the eyes of an alcoholic. When he breathed, you could hear it,” Newman writes. Newman credits his wife for her level of compassion. She feeds Anthony, allows him to stay in the basement, but soon Anthony drinks all of the household beer stash, doesn’t eat, and the author struggles to explain his presence to his two small children.
Through Anthony’s stay, Newman is able to realize and articulate his thoughts as to why someone like Anthony never moved past the turbulence of those teenage years. He figures it out one night as he’s driving Anthony to the bus station to find his next hangout. He is drunk in the front seat and singing the same dead songs of the eighties perfectly. It all becomes somewhat clear. Anthony is not completely responsible for his addictions, and he is one of many.
Newman’s book is a captivating memoir that examines the reality of everyday life in western Pennsylvania and the circumstances it brings to those who must but can’t endure it. It is nostalgic, funny, and sometimes sad, and a fast moving, page-turning memoir.
August 16, 2023
I enjoyed this book very much. As someone who has labored at many working-class jobs (landscaper, a mason’s assistant, in a lumber yard, and in a kitchen-cabinet making factory), this book felt like home at times. Newman’s keen observations of human nature combined with his heartfelt approach to his friend, Anthony, made this a very poignant read. His honesty resonated with me, too.
September 26, 2023
Fine memoir by the Pittsburgh-area writer about growing up and building a life but still remaining in touch with friends of one's youth who couldn't manage the feat. Newman is an excellent storyteller, funny as well as moving but with keen insights about the small-town working-class culture in which he was raised.
July 10, 2023
A powerful meditation on friendship & family & what it means to be an artist today; plea for love & life & all the beauty out there, despite the struggles & the sadness & the failures that keep us keepin' on.
September 2, 2023
Newman does it again, but this time without the guardrails of fiction. This is real life. A raw memoir that deals with the struggles of drug and alcohol addiction, old fallen friendships, the past and its obligations, unemployment and job loss, trying to help others who don’t necessarily want to help themselves, successes and failures, the emptiness of nostalgia, but ultimately, this is a book about the importance of self-preservation, dignity, responsibility to one’s family, and love.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews