A Memoir Of No One In Particular by Daniel Harris

by Daniel Harris

This unique, quirky book parodies conventional narrative autobiography and asks the question, "Why should we care about anyone's life?" Many complain that the memoir has overtaken the novel and has become too influential in our current literary scene. But no one has actually done anything about it. There have been no satires or parodies of the genre-until now.In A Memoir of No One in Particular, our author approaches his life as if he were a specimen in a biologist's petrie dish. Rather than giving the usual narrative account, No One in Particular tells his own personal history as a gay white male by probing the banalities of daily living and the unexplored territory of the commonplace. Dispensing with clichéd and romanticized reminiscences, he revels in the minutiae and mundane habits and rituals of modern daily living, and finds his own unique contraption of selfhood amongst this quotidian detritus.Why is he No One in Particular? Although he can hardly claim to be Everyman, this very anonymity sardonically thumbs its literary nose at all those who must tell their unique stories. Equal parts spoof, satire, memoir, essay, literary criticism, and autobiography, this is a radical new book that will dare you to love it.

Genres: Memoir, Nonfiction

Hardcover

First published March 1, 2002

About the author

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Reviews

[Melody Hitchner · Rating 4 out of 5]

I don’t know if I liked this book or not. There’s something brilliant in a book about no one in particular but whose chapters are about very particular topics: dressing, eating, pooping, bathing, cleaning, etc; in other words, the excruciating minutiae of everyday life.

[AM · Rating 1 out of 5]

Get over yourself. You are not interesting, nor is this book. Nice try at being clever or unique or whatever it was you were trying to achieve.

Fraud.

Mommy didn't give him enough attention, but it's masked by "bodily functions."

Anyone want to buy this one? I can't even keep it. I dislike it that much. F+

[Matt · Rating 1 out of 5]

Began with a humor that promised to be a mildly amusing confessional-parody entertainment but just became too self-indulgent in its over-stuffed sentences tainted with tired old queeniness. wasn't revelatory or interestingly but rather pathetic, barely-veiled self-hating bs, if you want the truth.

[Lobstergirl · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hilarious, grotesque, pitiable. If you have time on your hands, definitely contains many passages you should cross-stitch onto pillows.

[Mark · Rating 3 out of 5]

I started reading this book a few sentences at a time at work. In that setting, it enchanted me. Harris' elaborate sentences and bold frankness were a fresh antidote to maintaining a respectful posture and watching every word that one says in our careful culture. It is very rare that I've heard anyone be so honest about contemporary American life, and he clearly revels in the use of words to describe it.

When I took the book home to really dive in a chapter at a time, the polish wore off. The rolling, circuitous sentences full of asides and learned references became tiring to read after several paragraphs. And I realized that while Harris is astonishingly straightforward about our inner lives, he is only straightforward about the negative parts of them. He writes off his father, scandalizes his mother, looks down on his siblings, rolls his eyes at his friends, barely tolerates his tricks, hardly mentions his lovers at all, seems vaguely disgusted with himself, & finds everyone else to be annoying detritus. The effect was like listening to a bitchy, jaded drag queen- hilarious & insightful in small doses, depressing & sad at length.

And I have to admit that I am just not the audience for a chapter on "Farting, Pooping, Peeing, & Bathing". He starts off the chapter self-confidently asserting that, "Like the majority of people, I enjoy the odor of my own farts." I am someone who feels my stomach lurch at the scent of anyone's farts, my own included, so this breezy assumption was not just off-base but straight-up repulsive. When he added later in the chapter that he suspected that I examined my boogers before eating them, I knew the affair was over.

I'd still recommend this book for anyone who wants to examine their motivations (at least the base ones) & many of the most common motivations of our time (at least the petty ones) with eyes wide open. But you might want to chase this bitter pill with a cheerful beach read.

[Alvin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Once again, Harris demonstrates that sheer honesty and intelligence, when applied unsentimantally and unsparingly to any subject, produce fascinating results.

[The Arcane Master · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sassy, self-effacing, brutally honest, and amusing as hell.
i recommend this book highly.