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The Tooth Fairy: Parents, Lovers, and Other Wayward Deities
In shimmering prose that weaves among intimate confessions, deadpan asides, and piercing observations on the fear and turmoil that defined the long decade after 9/11, Clifford Chase tells the stories that have shaped his adulthood. There are his aging parents, whose disagreements sharpen as their health declines; and his beloved brother, lost tragically to AIDS; and his long-term boyfriend―always present, but always kept at a distance. There is also the revelatory, joyful music of the B-52s, Chase’s sexual confusion in his twenties, and more recently, the mysterious appearance in his luggage of weird objects from Iran the year his mother died. In the midst of all this is Chase’s singular voice―incisive, wry, confiding, by turns cool or emotional, always engaging. The way this book is written―in pitch-perfect fragments―is crucial to Chase’s deeper that we experience and remember in short bursts of insight, terror, comedy, and love. As ambitious in its form as it is in its radical candor, The Tooth Fairy is the rare memoir that can truly claim to rethink the genre.
- GenresMemoirNonfictionLGBT
256 pages, Hardcover
First published February 6, 2014
7 people are currently reading
97 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
April 14, 2014
The memoir is constructed mostly of one-sentence paragraphs. At first I thought, "Oh. This is for our text-happy, tweeting population. All thoughts short,quick and free-floating." But there is much more going on here. The seemingly independent sentences are not random and DO form a cohesive whole. Chase is brilliant. So many thoughts, observations, feelings, happenings presented in a fresh, easily accessible style.
Funny too.
Several examples:
(p.58) To a female passerby, a homeless man said, "You love me, I love you. It's very simple. Very simple indeed."
(p. 67) My grandmother's crazy quilt beneath the backgammon board.
(p. 80) At one point I said, "Am I getting any warmer?"
(p. 112) The whole "What if…" essay.
(p. 228) Tonight he hung up on me.
—HTML Giant sums it up perfectly:
“Each sentence stands like a tooth in a mouth, perfect on its own . . . Full of emotional punches.”
Funny too.
Several examples:
(p.58) To a female passerby, a homeless man said, "You love me, I love you. It's very simple. Very simple indeed."
(p. 67) My grandmother's crazy quilt beneath the backgammon board.
(p. 80) At one point I said, "Am I getting any warmer?"
(p. 112) The whole "What if…" essay.
(p. 228) Tonight he hung up on me.
—HTML Giant sums it up perfectly:
“Each sentence stands like a tooth in a mouth, perfect on its own . . . Full of emotional punches.”
Read
October 30, 2024An awkward read
I've not read many memoirs, so the first person POV stream of conscious format proved a struggle for me. Seemingly random thoughts in one- and two-sentence paragraphs track a depressing history of a dysfunctional family, and a writer who has little happiness in his life.
I've not read many memoirs, so the first person POV stream of conscious format proved a struggle for me. Seemingly random thoughts in one- and two-sentence paragraphs track a depressing history of a dysfunctional family, and a writer who has little happiness in his life.
November 19, 2024
I don’t think I could have related to an author more. The things he said were things I have or would have said at one point in my life.
November 28, 2016
I went to look at the sunset and was given a ticket for trespassing.
I was unexpectedly surprised to find that this particular fractured figment, like a subtitled story about some anticipated, requisite sanity, instead became a ludicrous oxymoron, which became my favorite bit within the bigger book. But not to blame the balance of other mini-stories, which are all uniquely important to the timeline, in the life & thereto the (2014) book by Clifford Chase, The Tooth Fairy – Parents, Lovers, and Other Wayward Deities (A Memoir).
Although, I’m not so sure why there’s a pair of pliers on the front cover, unless some portion of the inside story & seemingly one-sided exchange might mysteriously, still cleverly coincide with my, or someone else’s vocal declaration whenever some goal seems severely impossible to achieve & I’ll sometimes say, ‘it was like pulling teeth, to get whatever I thought I wanted from such a thing, or so & so.’
Still, I liked Clifford’s finicky story format in simple, single sentences or fragile yet fragmented paragraphs, like a one-sided conversation, which I greedily partook, because it seemed as if I was having some verbal private intercourse with the writer & thereby felt important with my written invitation in-hand, albeit with however much restricted time was required for me to understand the function, as I often reread a line or would stop to ponder & take a break & then return to resume our conversation about this & that, which all made eventual sense in both the short-term & the long-term, in order for me to read his funny brave book.
Clifford’s approach to his countless dilemmas about whatever, reminds me of another similar story-teller, namely Joe Brainard, who starts every sentence, like a paragraph of specific recollection in a trilogy (or maybe more) of his memory books, with, ‘I Remember..’ Clifford does something similar, but at the same time engages the reader to follow the subject-thread a bit longer & participate in the intuitive banter, like a quick & orderly discussion about this & that, before our break at work should end too quickly & we have to return to our desks & wait impatiently till next-time to talk again.
Clifford explains the process thusly –
‘I write this in the hope that aphorism-like statements, when added one to another might accrue to make some larger statement that will placate despair.’
Enough said. Because as Clifford reminds us about the severe self-entitlement of transitory transgressions on page 25 –
‘The difficulty of being honest or objective about your own life for more than a second.’
I recommend both this (2014) Memoir & his first Memoir published in 1995, The Hurry-up Song, as well as the Anthology of funny & fragmented recollections about school-time splinters, in the (1998) book edited by Clifford Chase, Queer 13 - Lesbian and Gay Writers Recall Seventh Grade.
You might read all 3 & possibly learn something ephemeral but enduring about yourself.
Review by Jack Dunsmoor, author of the book, OK2BG
I was unexpectedly surprised to find that this particular fractured figment, like a subtitled story about some anticipated, requisite sanity, instead became a ludicrous oxymoron, which became my favorite bit within the bigger book. But not to blame the balance of other mini-stories, which are all uniquely important to the timeline, in the life & thereto the (2014) book by Clifford Chase, The Tooth Fairy – Parents, Lovers, and Other Wayward Deities (A Memoir).
Although, I’m not so sure why there’s a pair of pliers on the front cover, unless some portion of the inside story & seemingly one-sided exchange might mysteriously, still cleverly coincide with my, or someone else’s vocal declaration whenever some goal seems severely impossible to achieve & I’ll sometimes say, ‘it was like pulling teeth, to get whatever I thought I wanted from such a thing, or so & so.’
Still, I liked Clifford’s finicky story format in simple, single sentences or fragile yet fragmented paragraphs, like a one-sided conversation, which I greedily partook, because it seemed as if I was having some verbal private intercourse with the writer & thereby felt important with my written invitation in-hand, albeit with however much restricted time was required for me to understand the function, as I often reread a line or would stop to ponder & take a break & then return to resume our conversation about this & that, which all made eventual sense in both the short-term & the long-term, in order for me to read his funny brave book.
Clifford’s approach to his countless dilemmas about whatever, reminds me of another similar story-teller, namely Joe Brainard, who starts every sentence, like a paragraph of specific recollection in a trilogy (or maybe more) of his memory books, with, ‘I Remember..’ Clifford does something similar, but at the same time engages the reader to follow the subject-thread a bit longer & participate in the intuitive banter, like a quick & orderly discussion about this & that, before our break at work should end too quickly & we have to return to our desks & wait impatiently till next-time to talk again.
Clifford explains the process thusly –
‘I write this in the hope that aphorism-like statements, when added one to another might accrue to make some larger statement that will placate despair.’
Enough said. Because as Clifford reminds us about the severe self-entitlement of transitory transgressions on page 25 –
‘The difficulty of being honest or objective about your own life for more than a second.’
I recommend both this (2014) Memoir & his first Memoir published in 1995, The Hurry-up Song, as well as the Anthology of funny & fragmented recollections about school-time splinters, in the (1998) book edited by Clifford Chase, Queer 13 - Lesbian and Gay Writers Recall Seventh Grade.
You might read all 3 & possibly learn something ephemeral but enduring about yourself.
Review by Jack Dunsmoor, author of the book, OK2BG
August 15, 2015
A fine memoir that demonstrates the stealth emotional power of fragmentation. An obvious recent cousin (autobiographical fiction) is Jenny Offill's Dept. of Speculation (wonderful, wonderful). It is also a relative of Didion's Year of Magical Thinking, which, though not composed in teeny, subject-shuffling paragraphs, also uses emotional restraint to paradoxical effect.
I had worried my brain would have to work hard (oh, poor me) to organize the narratives, but this was not the case. The Offill is more daring in its embrace of the elliptical, though that is a great pleasure here as well.
A personal note: I was knocked sideways by the evocation of Chase's mother, a bitter malcontent who always spoke against his father and pitted son against father....very close to home. (Sorry, Mom. I am not as trammeled by it as Chase was at the time of writing, at least I'm not anymore. But my experience was spookily similar. Oh, mothers.)
I had worried my brain would have to work hard (oh, poor me) to organize the narratives, but this was not the case. The Offill is more daring in its embrace of the elliptical, though that is a great pleasure here as well.
A personal note: I was knocked sideways by the evocation of Chase's mother, a bitter malcontent who always spoke against his father and pitted son against father....very close to home. (Sorry, Mom. I am not as trammeled by it as Chase was at the time of writing, at least I'm not anymore. But my experience was spookily similar. Oh, mothers.)
February 21, 2014
Because I have known Cliff since high school I found the book fascinating. I remember his parents and found mutual friends appearing in the story of his life. In high school I thought I knew him well but there was a lot I didn't know going on beneath the surface. We lost touch for a few decades and this story filled me in on what I had missed. His sharing the story of the death of his brother Ken has given me some insights on what my husband may have gone through in dealing with the suicide of his closest brother which happened around the same time that Cliffs brother got sick and died. Cliff writes about his struggle to be open, I find him to be very open in sharing the deep parts of his life.
April 25, 2014
This unique memoir is composed of mainly one sentence thoughts, that taken as a whole, give a glimpse into a man who is dealing with his life as a gay man, the aging of his parents, and trying to make sense of his brothers death from AIDS. Some really good writing - I enjoyed it.
March 16, 2014
a well-thought out memoir. chase lets time guides him through many lessons so that what he writes is what he means. lovely, human, fair.
June 1, 2014
When I started the book I thought I would hate it but actually it ended up being pretty interesting. The way it is written is very different.
August 11, 2014
Memoir written as a series of sometimes disconnected aphorisms. Sneakily moving.
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews