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Meet Me In In-Between
A provocative and lively memoir in stories by the bestselling, "Richard and Judy" selected author of The Summer of the Bear Growing up the middle child of transatlantic parents--her down- to-earth mother and romantic father--Bella Pollen never quite figured out how to belong. Restlessly crossing back and forth between the boundaries of family and freedom, England and America, home and away, she has sought but generally failed to contain an adventurous spirit within the confines of conventional living.
When she awakes one morning stymied by an existential panic, Pollen grudgingly concludes that in order to move forward, she needs to take a good look at her past. In Meet Me in the In-Between, Pollen takes us on the illuminating journey of a life, from her privileged, unorthodox childhood in Upper Manhattan through early marriage to a son of an alluring Mafioso, to the dusty border towns of Mexico where she falls in with a crowd of Pink Floyd-loving smugglers. Throughout all, Bella grapples intently with relationships, motherhood, career ups and downs, and a pathological fear of being boxed in.
Interwoven with exquisite passages of graphic memoir, this is a tender, funny, and deeply honest story of one woman's quest to keep looking for the extraordinary in an ordinary life. With patented mix of humor and pain, novelist Bella Pollen takes a dead-on look at what it means to be a smart, reasonably sane woman navigating the modern world.
When she awakes one morning stymied by an existential panic, Pollen grudgingly concludes that in order to move forward, she needs to take a good look at her past. In Meet Me in the In-Between, Pollen takes us on the illuminating journey of a life, from her privileged, unorthodox childhood in Upper Manhattan through early marriage to a son of an alluring Mafioso, to the dusty border towns of Mexico where she falls in with a crowd of Pink Floyd-loving smugglers. Throughout all, Bella grapples intently with relationships, motherhood, career ups and downs, and a pathological fear of being boxed in.
Interwoven with exquisite passages of graphic memoir, this is a tender, funny, and deeply honest story of one woman's quest to keep looking for the extraordinary in an ordinary life. With patented mix of humor and pain, novelist Bella Pollen takes a dead-on look at what it means to be a smart, reasonably sane woman navigating the modern world.
336 pages, Hardcover
First published June 26, 2017
9 people are currently reading
568 people want to read
About the author
Bella Pollen
10 books61 followersRaised in New York , Bella Pollen is a writer and journalist who has contributed to a variety of publications, including Uk and American Vogue, The Times, the Sunday Telegraph and the Observer.
Author of five previous novels, including the best selling Hunting Unicorns and critically acclaimed Summer of the Bear, Pollen has tackled a broad spectrum of subjects from Cold War intrigue to decline of the British Aristocracy to the immigration issues of the US/Mexican Border.
With Meet Me in the In-Between, an illustrated memoir, Pollen takes us on her illuminating, funny and often painful quest to keep looking for the extraordinary in an ordinary life.
Pollen divides her time between London and the American mid-west.
Author of five previous novels, including the best selling Hunting Unicorns and critically acclaimed Summer of the Bear, Pollen has tackled a broad spectrum of subjects from Cold War intrigue to decline of the British Aristocracy to the immigration issues of the US/Mexican Border.
With Meet Me in the In-Between, an illustrated memoir, Pollen takes us on her illuminating, funny and often painful quest to keep looking for the extraordinary in an ordinary life.
Pollen divides her time between London and the American mid-west.
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Displaying 1 - 29 of 29 reviews
May 19, 2017
This book is gonna be hard to review because I really, really did not enjoy it. At all. But I dislike giving memoirs a negative review because, well, this is somebody's life I am talking about and I just don't feel particularly comfortable being negative about that.
The book and me started on the wrong foot - because it starts with a sex ghost. An honest-to-god sex ghost that is visiting Bella Pollen in her sleep and wakes her up and makes her orgasm. This reoccuring visitation is her starting point to (re-)evaluate her life and her choices and what made her end up at this place - being haunted. Then, we go back in time to her childhood in New York and her father buying a parrot - a parrot that happens to be racist towards their maid, and towards Bella herself because she has decided that a preccocious child wearing an afro-wig is the kind of child she wants to be. And it turns out, while I enjoy quirkiness in novels, I apparently do not enjoy this kind of quirkiness in memoirs, especially if it told this matter of factly. The rest of the book stays this removed from normality, chronicling her life with her maybe-mafioso ex-husband, her relationship with Mac, her quintessentially English second husband, a weirdly long interlude about her obsession with wanting to cross the Mexican/US-American border on foot, and other mostly weird stories about her life in the "In-Between".
My main issue with the book, however, regardless of its quirkiness, is Bella herself. I think I would have been fine with the quirkiness, if she had been more self-aware, or honest maybe? It always feels like she is putting on a show, a show that she thinks will make herself look good. But that did not happen for me; I found her to be very close to insufferable. She is beyond privileged and never acknowledges it, I mean, who has the money to start their own designer brand at the age of twenty without having a degree or anything related? Who has the money to own a house in the American West AND a flat in London? Most of all, she is mean in the way she decides to describe everybody she encounters, especially those in more difficult situations. For example, she describes one of the women she employs to clean for her as having a face like a fish -I can't recall what kind of fish, but the point still stands - that was uncalled for. I think I could have lived with that meaness, if it had been counterbalanced by humour or wit or humility, but as it stands it made me deeply uncomfortable.
I am still giving this book two stars because for some reason it was in points compulsively readable and she has a way of painting vivid pictures of the world she encounters, even if she chooses to be mean about it.
_____
I received an arc of this book curtesy of NetGalley and Grove Atlantic in exchange for an honest review. Thanks for that!
The book and me started on the wrong foot - because it starts with a sex ghost. An honest-to-god sex ghost that is visiting Bella Pollen in her sleep and wakes her up and makes her orgasm. This reoccuring visitation is her starting point to (re-)evaluate her life and her choices and what made her end up at this place - being haunted. Then, we go back in time to her childhood in New York and her father buying a parrot - a parrot that happens to be racist towards their maid, and towards Bella herself because she has decided that a preccocious child wearing an afro-wig is the kind of child she wants to be. And it turns out, while I enjoy quirkiness in novels, I apparently do not enjoy this kind of quirkiness in memoirs, especially if it told this matter of factly. The rest of the book stays this removed from normality, chronicling her life with her maybe-mafioso ex-husband, her relationship with Mac, her quintessentially English second husband, a weirdly long interlude about her obsession with wanting to cross the Mexican/US-American border on foot, and other mostly weird stories about her life in the "In-Between".
My main issue with the book, however, regardless of its quirkiness, is Bella herself. I think I would have been fine with the quirkiness, if she had been more self-aware, or honest maybe? It always feels like she is putting on a show, a show that she thinks will make herself look good. But that did not happen for me; I found her to be very close to insufferable. She is beyond privileged and never acknowledges it, I mean, who has the money to start their own designer brand at the age of twenty without having a degree or anything related? Who has the money to own a house in the American West AND a flat in London? Most of all, she is mean in the way she decides to describe everybody she encounters, especially those in more difficult situations. For example, she describes one of the women she employs to clean for her as having a face like a fish -I can't recall what kind of fish, but the point still stands - that was uncalled for. I think I could have lived with that meaness, if it had been counterbalanced by humour or wit or humility, but as it stands it made me deeply uncomfortable.
I am still giving this book two stars because for some reason it was in points compulsively readable and she has a way of painting vivid pictures of the world she encounters, even if she chooses to be mean about it.
_____
I received an arc of this book curtesy of NetGalley and Grove Atlantic in exchange for an honest review. Thanks for that!
June 3, 2017
I should have given up when the incubus turned up in chapter one. But as ever, my stupid persistence kept telling me to give it a chance. I feel bad being so negative. After all, this is the author's memoir, so criticizing anything about it feels kind of wrong. But honestly, I didn't enjoy this. Some of that was due to the style. It was delivered in a smug tone that I just didn't like. It was overwritten, trying too hard. Then there were some elements relating to race, nationalities, and descriptions of people that I believe the author intended to be amusing (at least I hope so), but I didn't find those funny at all. Reading somebody's memoir is all about getting to know that particular person, and in this case, the author and I just didn't click.
At times, I felt I was reading short fictional stories rather than an autobiographical account. It seemed like a collection of stories from somebody extremely privileged and I just couldn't muster up any empathy. Not many people can just take off when they feel boxed in, in particular when you're a mother.
The best part of this was right at the end when the author talks about her relationship with her father. If there had been more of that same poignancy and the same level of sincere feelings that I could have related to, I would have enjoyed this a lot more.
So, sadly, this wasn't for me, but if you're looking for something a bit different and very quirky, and you can relate to the privileged POV, you will enjoy this a lot more than I did. The second star is basically on the account of the parts about the father - daughter relationship. Apologies for my negativity.
I received an ARC via NetGalley.
At times, I felt I was reading short fictional stories rather than an autobiographical account. It seemed like a collection of stories from somebody extremely privileged and I just couldn't muster up any empathy. Not many people can just take off when they feel boxed in, in particular when you're a mother.
The best part of this was right at the end when the author talks about her relationship with her father. If there had been more of that same poignancy and the same level of sincere feelings that I could have related to, I would have enjoyed this a lot more.
So, sadly, this wasn't for me, but if you're looking for something a bit different and very quirky, and you can relate to the privileged POV, you will enjoy this a lot more than I did. The second star is basically on the account of the parts about the father - daughter relationship. Apologies for my negativity.
I received an ARC via NetGalley.
February 6, 2020
(3.5) Bella Pollen is the author of five novels, so it’s not too surprising that in this atypical memoir she records scenes from her own life almost as if they were fictional vignettes. Rather than giving a chronological blow-by-blow account, she jumps ahead as it suits her, avoiding many of life’s more obvious turning points and landing instead on the moments that stand out for her. And all this in a whimsical and at times very funny style.
Pollen frames her story with a psychic struggle from her recent past. Living in an old, crumbling house in Oxfordshire with her husband Mac, she started to fall prey to insomnia and weird sex dreams. Could she be haunted by an incubus? She felt out of control of her own life, as well as creatively blocked. Delving into the past for this memoir would be like therapy: a way of putting everything together and justifying her lifelong interests.
Raised in New York City and London by English parents (her father was the president of Sotheby’s auction house and her mother was a teacher), Pollen had a hybrid identity from the start. As the middle child of three, she came to be known as a tactless bully. The book’s most riotous anecdote comes from these childhood years. She yearned to be black and was granted her dearest wish for an Afro wig one Christmas. Meanwhile, her father had a racist pet parrot who shared his love for neat vodka. One day the bird attacked Pollen’s wig and flew out the window with it, unceremoniously dropping it onto a fire hydrant.
There’s a mixture of silly and sobering stories here, and sometimes what starts off seeming lighthearted turns darker along the way. A sudden marriage at age 21 to Giacomo when she found out she was pregnant with his child seems like a comedy of errors, especially thanks to her father-in-law Gilberto’s possible Mafia connections – but it’s less funny when she realises that Giacomo is angry all the time and leaves him, only to find herself a single mother of two trying to maintain her small fashion business.
A U.S. road trip with friends sparked an abiding love of the American West that led Pollen and her second husband to build a farmhouse in southwest Colorado, where they now spend their summers. The search for an au pair for their four children allows for some amusing character studies, like the one of Paula, a wizened Texan who had her own ideas about what cleaning was necessary and drank all the alcohol in the house.
Later, Pollen would take trips to the USA-Mexico border to research a novel (2006’s Midnight Cactus) about people smuggling. I felt that this section was far too long, but it does provide a symbolic reinforcement of Pollen’s interest in the in-between places: “For as long as I can remember, the opposing pull of home or away has been the central struggle of my life. … I had avoided choosing between the two, preferring instead to inhabit the liminal spaces … and there search out adventure and danger in worlds that were not my own.”
What with the unusual choices of what to focus on and the frequent black-and-white drawings, including three mini-graphic novel sequences (the book is illustrated by Kate Boxer), this is definitely not your average memoir. It’s clear that Pollen has real talent for recreating scenes, characters and dialogue, so I’m keen to try one of her novels after this.
Pollen frames her story with a psychic struggle from her recent past. Living in an old, crumbling house in Oxfordshire with her husband Mac, she started to fall prey to insomnia and weird sex dreams. Could she be haunted by an incubus? She felt out of control of her own life, as well as creatively blocked. Delving into the past for this memoir would be like therapy: a way of putting everything together and justifying her lifelong interests.
Raised in New York City and London by English parents (her father was the president of Sotheby’s auction house and her mother was a teacher), Pollen had a hybrid identity from the start. As the middle child of three, she came to be known as a tactless bully. The book’s most riotous anecdote comes from these childhood years. She yearned to be black and was granted her dearest wish for an Afro wig one Christmas. Meanwhile, her father had a racist pet parrot who shared his love for neat vodka. One day the bird attacked Pollen’s wig and flew out the window with it, unceremoniously dropping it onto a fire hydrant.
There’s a mixture of silly and sobering stories here, and sometimes what starts off seeming lighthearted turns darker along the way. A sudden marriage at age 21 to Giacomo when she found out she was pregnant with his child seems like a comedy of errors, especially thanks to her father-in-law Gilberto’s possible Mafia connections – but it’s less funny when she realises that Giacomo is angry all the time and leaves him, only to find herself a single mother of two trying to maintain her small fashion business.
A U.S. road trip with friends sparked an abiding love of the American West that led Pollen and her second husband to build a farmhouse in southwest Colorado, where they now spend their summers. The search for an au pair for their four children allows for some amusing character studies, like the one of Paula, a wizened Texan who had her own ideas about what cleaning was necessary and drank all the alcohol in the house.
Later, Pollen would take trips to the USA-Mexico border to research a novel (2006’s Midnight Cactus) about people smuggling. I felt that this section was far too long, but it does provide a symbolic reinforcement of Pollen’s interest in the in-between places: “For as long as I can remember, the opposing pull of home or away has been the central struggle of my life. … I had avoided choosing between the two, preferring instead to inhabit the liminal spaces … and there search out adventure and danger in worlds that were not my own.”
What with the unusual choices of what to focus on and the frequent black-and-white drawings, including three mini-graphic novel sequences (the book is illustrated by Kate Boxer), this is definitely not your average memoir. It’s clear that Pollen has real talent for recreating scenes, characters and dialogue, so I’m keen to try one of her novels after this.
February 7, 2017
via my blog https://bookstalkerblog.wordpress.com/
"I also had a passion. In my free time I liked to torture dolls and stuffed animals. Run-of-the-mill stuff really- singeing their hair, twisting off their heads. My parents encouraged it.”
When I first started reading I thought, oh- is this going to be a new age memoir? It’s not, keep going through her struggle with her night visitor, it all makes sense. I spent many nights when I should have been asleep laughing. I love her childhood and her eccentricities. She’s a child I would have loved to befriend and who can’t help but laugh when she admits to adults what she wants to be when she grows up? Living on two sides of the pond after her parent’s split, her world seems richer for it in experience. Her burning, fiery love affair with the smoldering Giacomo turns hilarious when his ‘titty squeezing’ daddy enters the scene. It’s either laugh, or cry! That these folks are actually real is just more solid proof that life is stranger than fiction. It’s as though she has entered the twilight zone but with the Godfather as the main attraction.
Escaping to the American West has to be the cure to what ails her, courting her past in solitude is just what she needs. But the locals she encounters are even wilder than anyone before them. Just how do you confront yourself, squelch your panics, lock out your sleep demons, channel your creative side, and be a good mother and wife at the same time? Maybe she becomes more vagabond than supermom, and it’s the raw honesty and hilarity of her journey that endears the reader to Pollen. I was tickled reading about her childhood and her adult years aren’t any less fascinating. Just how the heck does she find herself with smugglers in Mexico, surely she’s too delicate to journey into the country to learn about the perils migrants faced? Making editors and friends alike laugh, she does just that. The woman’s got grit, she does- but not so surprising when the reader remembers the earlier chapters of little blue-eyed girl walking to and from school, channeling Pam Grier in her beautiful Afro wig.
Her mother and father are interesting too, and there are losses and heartbreak but there seems to remain a ‘twinkle in the eye’ sort of humor that flows through her veins, and may well have come from her father. A beautifully written memoir about a woman who is just like any of us, trying to be a good wife and mother, struggling with her inborn hunger for periods of solitude, trying to be creative while filling her roles in life, winning and failing because she is human. Relationships are never happily ever after, we are all a work in progress, we can’t always keep up with each other or ourselves. Somehow, Pollen is able to use humor to keep the reader riveted, even when writing about the loss of her father. Wide eyed, wild, messy, honest and raw but never boring! Lovely.
Publication Date: June 6, 2017
Grove Atlantic
Grove Press
"I also had a passion. In my free time I liked to torture dolls and stuffed animals. Run-of-the-mill stuff really- singeing their hair, twisting off their heads. My parents encouraged it.”
When I first started reading I thought, oh- is this going to be a new age memoir? It’s not, keep going through her struggle with her night visitor, it all makes sense. I spent many nights when I should have been asleep laughing. I love her childhood and her eccentricities. She’s a child I would have loved to befriend and who can’t help but laugh when she admits to adults what she wants to be when she grows up? Living on two sides of the pond after her parent’s split, her world seems richer for it in experience. Her burning, fiery love affair with the smoldering Giacomo turns hilarious when his ‘titty squeezing’ daddy enters the scene. It’s either laugh, or cry! That these folks are actually real is just more solid proof that life is stranger than fiction. It’s as though she has entered the twilight zone but with the Godfather as the main attraction.
Escaping to the American West has to be the cure to what ails her, courting her past in solitude is just what she needs. But the locals she encounters are even wilder than anyone before them. Just how do you confront yourself, squelch your panics, lock out your sleep demons, channel your creative side, and be a good mother and wife at the same time? Maybe she becomes more vagabond than supermom, and it’s the raw honesty and hilarity of her journey that endears the reader to Pollen. I was tickled reading about her childhood and her adult years aren’t any less fascinating. Just how the heck does she find herself with smugglers in Mexico, surely she’s too delicate to journey into the country to learn about the perils migrants faced? Making editors and friends alike laugh, she does just that. The woman’s got grit, she does- but not so surprising when the reader remembers the earlier chapters of little blue-eyed girl walking to and from school, channeling Pam Grier in her beautiful Afro wig.
Her mother and father are interesting too, and there are losses and heartbreak but there seems to remain a ‘twinkle in the eye’ sort of humor that flows through her veins, and may well have come from her father. A beautifully written memoir about a woman who is just like any of us, trying to be a good wife and mother, struggling with her inborn hunger for periods of solitude, trying to be creative while filling her roles in life, winning and failing because she is human. Relationships are never happily ever after, we are all a work in progress, we can’t always keep up with each other or ourselves. Somehow, Pollen is able to use humor to keep the reader riveted, even when writing about the loss of her father. Wide eyed, wild, messy, honest and raw but never boring! Lovely.
Publication Date: June 6, 2017
Grove Atlantic
Grove Press
February 6, 2017
3.5
"When some nosy, insensitive small-talker asks me what I do, I take a deep breath and muster as much dignity as possible before replying."
"I do my best."
This is the kind of lines that you will find when you read this book. Super quirky, ironic and as the author says "zero-politeness". The memoir starts with author's childhood memories, her being the mid child among three, a world full of sibling fights and playing favourite of parents.
I loved that part, the childhood.
Then author is torn between her parents divorce, moving around, school/college, new found freedom, drugs, sex etc and also her demon- DEPRESSION.
Her marriage to Giacomo, an Italian with a big family where his father is a Godfather, is narrated in a very amusingly hilarious way. But somehow she has masked the heartaches/disappointments that build up in a marriage and has tried to put forth what she really enjoyed in front of us.
Last part is more about her second marriage, its struggle, being a super mom , trying to open the border crisis in Mexico and her relationship with her Father.
Summing up, it was altogether a enlightening read (a memoir always is!). I liked that she talked about her problems, with an optimism and a complete acceptance which really is great and only a powerful soul can do that. Yet, some parts in the middle were completely off for me and I couldn't understand it much. Narration was great and I am happy that I feel acquainted with Bella Pollen through her memoir :)
ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an unbiased review. Thanks for making this available!
"When some nosy, insensitive small-talker asks me what I do, I take a deep breath and muster as much dignity as possible before replying."
"I do my best."
This is the kind of lines that you will find when you read this book. Super quirky, ironic and as the author says "zero-politeness". The memoir starts with author's childhood memories, her being the mid child among three, a world full of sibling fights and playing favourite of parents.
I loved that part, the childhood.
Then author is torn between her parents divorce, moving around, school/college, new found freedom, drugs, sex etc and also her demon- DEPRESSION.
Her marriage to Giacomo, an Italian with a big family where his father is a Godfather, is narrated in a very amusingly hilarious way. But somehow she has masked the heartaches/disappointments that build up in a marriage and has tried to put forth what she really enjoyed in front of us.
Last part is more about her second marriage, its struggle, being a super mom , trying to open the border crisis in Mexico and her relationship with her Father.
Summing up, it was altogether a enlightening read (a memoir always is!). I liked that she talked about her problems, with an optimism and a complete acceptance which really is great and only a powerful soul can do that. Yet, some parts in the middle were completely off for me and I couldn't understand it much. Narration was great and I am happy that I feel acquainted with Bella Pollen through her memoir :)
ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an unbiased review. Thanks for making this available!
February 14, 2017
MEET ME IN THE IN BETWEEN BY BELLA POLLEN
Thank you to Net Galley, Bella Pollen and Grove Press for providing me with my digital copy for a fair and honest review.
This memoir begins with the author waking up at 4:00 AM waking up from a nightmare, which she suffers from having frequently. Or is she being haunted and visited from what she describes as an incubus? The author then goes on to a tirade about thinking how seeing a shrink wouldn't be helpful.
This book seems full of gibberish, as it goes on and on to talk about nothing that makes much sense. Maybe somebody else might be a better fit for this book. This wasn't a good fit for me.
Thank you to Net Galley, Bella Pollen and Grove Press for providing me with my digital copy for a fair and honest review.
This memoir begins with the author waking up at 4:00 AM waking up from a nightmare, which she suffers from having frequently. Or is she being haunted and visited from what she describes as an incubus? The author then goes on to a tirade about thinking how seeing a shrink wouldn't be helpful.
This book seems full of gibberish, as it goes on and on to talk about nothing that makes much sense. Maybe somebody else might be a better fit for this book. This wasn't a good fit for me.
May 12, 2017
This memoir is so not what I expected, I seldom write reviews because I am quite dyslexic and because generally I find books to be incredibly personal to the reader. However I finished Meet Me In The In-between in just 4 hours and afterwards found myself in a total euphoria, searching online to see if others felt the way I did. Many did, although a couple didn't.
For me, I thought it was absolutely hilarious, and a brave, ballsy and at times really poignant reflection on being utterly lost.
The book starts off with this mad encounter with a sexual ghost, which shocks her so much that she is thrown head first into a full life crisis, and decides the only way to get out of this creative and emotional rut is to take a painfully honest journey into her past and to figure out what her problem is.
The rest they say is history, and bella retells her incredibly adventurous life, from trying ( as a naïve white 8 year old) to be part of the Black is Beautiful movement in 60's New York, to being a journalist researching illegal immigration on the Mexican border.
And then there are the marriages, the love of the west and the children. Her descriptions of people were sensational, and it was evident she did not hold back on them, but she did not hold back on herself. My favorite moment being when a Mexican criminal proceeds to feel up her legs, only to withdraw in terror at the size of her thick ankles.
These bits were all funny and brilliant, but what left me with such a feeling I can't really describe,, is how open Bella was about being a paradoxical, contradictory and rather lost soul, and especially when it came to her parents being sick or when her children needed her most. I completely understood that this memoir is really a ship, a vessel to try and get her back home, and back to some kind of emotional normality.
I have never been much of a memoir reader, and now i feel i have missed out on so many others out there. Thank you Alice for the suggestion. And for people who read this, please can you reply with suggestions of other great memoirs.
For me, I thought it was absolutely hilarious, and a brave, ballsy and at times really poignant reflection on being utterly lost.
The book starts off with this mad encounter with a sexual ghost, which shocks her so much that she is thrown head first into a full life crisis, and decides the only way to get out of this creative and emotional rut is to take a painfully honest journey into her past and to figure out what her problem is.
The rest they say is history, and bella retells her incredibly adventurous life, from trying ( as a naïve white 8 year old) to be part of the Black is Beautiful movement in 60's New York, to being a journalist researching illegal immigration on the Mexican border.
And then there are the marriages, the love of the west and the children. Her descriptions of people were sensational, and it was evident she did not hold back on them, but she did not hold back on herself. My favorite moment being when a Mexican criminal proceeds to feel up her legs, only to withdraw in terror at the size of her thick ankles.
These bits were all funny and brilliant, but what left me with such a feeling I can't really describe,, is how open Bella was about being a paradoxical, contradictory and rather lost soul, and especially when it came to her parents being sick or when her children needed her most. I completely understood that this memoir is really a ship, a vessel to try and get her back home, and back to some kind of emotional normality.
I have never been much of a memoir reader, and now i feel i have missed out on so many others out there. Thank you Alice for the suggestion. And for people who read this, please can you reply with suggestions of other great memoirs.
August 13, 2017
It seems kind of appropriate given the book's title that I am undecided between giving it three stars or four. I loved, loved, loved the first half and then felt like it lost its way in the second half. In the end I've rounded up because the way that Bella Pollen can craft a sentence is just brilliant. Sometimes poignant, sometimes thought-provoking and often hilarious.
Bella Pollen - I must have heard of her before reading this book but the name meant nothing to me when I picked it up. Her first career was as a fashion designer and she frequently dressed Diana Princess of Wales. (There is very little mention of her career in this book and absolutely none of Diana or any of her other celebrity clients). She then turned to writing and has written several novels, including one which I own but have never got round to reading. (Along with about 500 other books). Again, there is very little mention of her writing career in this book.
So what is it about? Her childhood in Manhattan, her first marriage to the son of an Italian Godfather, her relationship with her children and her parents. And most of all, about her restless nature which takes her to live in a variety of isolated places and embark on crazy adventures like deciding to sneak across the border from Mexico into the US without being detected. It's a disjointed collection of anecdotes and character studies which somehow works because of her honest confessional tone and enviable way with words. I throughly enjoyed this - particularly the first half.
Bella Pollen - I must have heard of her before reading this book but the name meant nothing to me when I picked it up. Her first career was as a fashion designer and she frequently dressed Diana Princess of Wales. (There is very little mention of her career in this book and absolutely none of Diana or any of her other celebrity clients). She then turned to writing and has written several novels, including one which I own but have never got round to reading. (Along with about 500 other books). Again, there is very little mention of her writing career in this book.
So what is it about? Her childhood in Manhattan, her first marriage to the son of an Italian Godfather, her relationship with her children and her parents. And most of all, about her restless nature which takes her to live in a variety of isolated places and embark on crazy adventures like deciding to sneak across the border from Mexico into the US without being detected. It's a disjointed collection of anecdotes and character studies which somehow works because of her honest confessional tone and enviable way with words. I throughly enjoyed this - particularly the first half.
January 11, 2019
ei mäleta absoluutselt, mis asjaoludel see raamat mu lugemisnimekirja sattus, igatahes eeldasin/ootasin midagi hoopis muud. no pidi olema midagi ekstsentrilisest perekonnast ja kahe riigi vahel elamisest ja nii.
selle asemel (või no ok, sellele lisaks) sain lugeda mafioosost äiapapast (ei, muidu väga kena inimene), metsikust läänest 21. sajandil (intsest, perevägivald, räpasus, sõltuvused, pisi- ja organiseeritud kuritegevus), prostituutidest ja inimsmugeldajatest Mehhiko-USA piiril... elu pahupoolt küll ja veel.
kirja pandud oli see kõik kuidagi nii, et vastik oli, aga hinge eriti ei puudutanud. tegelikult on Pollen üsna hea inimeste kirjeldaja, aga kõik need tõsilood olid sellise... väljamõeldud hõnguga. näiteks lugu kuskil Mehhiko slummikeldris elavatest ja inimeste smugeldamisega tegelevatest Pink Floydi fännidest, kellele Bella isiklikult David Gilmouri autogrammiga plaadi viis, juhuslikult just Syd Barretti surmapäeval. jessas, sellest võiks kirjutada terve romaani või teha filmi! aga võib ka, nagu näha, kirjutada paaril leheküljel, nii et lugeja ütleb ainult "ahah".
selle asemel (või no ok, sellele lisaks) sain lugeda mafioosost äiapapast (ei, muidu väga kena inimene), metsikust läänest 21. sajandil (intsest, perevägivald, räpasus, sõltuvused, pisi- ja organiseeritud kuritegevus), prostituutidest ja inimsmugeldajatest Mehhiko-USA piiril... elu pahupoolt küll ja veel.
kirja pandud oli see kõik kuidagi nii, et vastik oli, aga hinge eriti ei puudutanud. tegelikult on Pollen üsna hea inimeste kirjeldaja, aga kõik need tõsilood olid sellise... väljamõeldud hõnguga. näiteks lugu kuskil Mehhiko slummikeldris elavatest ja inimeste smugeldamisega tegelevatest Pink Floydi fännidest, kellele Bella isiklikult David Gilmouri autogrammiga plaadi viis, juhuslikult just Syd Barretti surmapäeval. jessas, sellest võiks kirjutada terve romaani või teha filmi! aga võib ka, nagu näha, kirjutada paaril leheküljel, nii et lugeja ütleb ainult "ahah".
June 4, 2017
Thank you for a witty, quirky and often confronting insight into your world. A brave and honest soul bearing memoir, vivid visuals of different worlds and people you have lived in and visited - and never judged, I loved how you embraced each meeting as an opportunity , there must have been many a terrifying or even dull moment, yet you went with the flow.
The intoxicating Italian family (whanau in NZ) traditions, hilarious New York and London family moments with snide and cutting remarks which may be coping mechanisms but what a delightful way to be compared to the alternatives and the acknowledgement that along the way you may very well have fudged things up....
Yet you keep on keeping on! In search for something like we all are. However rather than sitting in front of the TV or computer with a packet of pork scratchings and feeling sorry for yourself, you pull your boots up and direct your energy to something new. Another challenge.
What an exciting life! I am looking forward the next 30yrs plus!!
I am thrilled to read another of your books, it always makes me smile to get slightly lost in the traditional frame and then BOOM the quirk brings it together.
The best English Roses have prickly thorns.
The intoxicating Italian family (whanau in NZ) traditions, hilarious New York and London family moments with snide and cutting remarks which may be coping mechanisms but what a delightful way to be compared to the alternatives and the acknowledgement that along the way you may very well have fudged things up....
Yet you keep on keeping on! In search for something like we all are. However rather than sitting in front of the TV or computer with a packet of pork scratchings and feeling sorry for yourself, you pull your boots up and direct your energy to something new. Another challenge.
What an exciting life! I am looking forward the next 30yrs plus!!
I am thrilled to read another of your books, it always makes me smile to get slightly lost in the traditional frame and then BOOM the quirk brings it together.
The best English Roses have prickly thorns.
June 2, 2017
This was a fun memoir to read. The authors style of writing is very entertaining and I think shows us quite well her struggle with who she is and what she wants out of life. The stories she gives us throughout of her experiences, the people she meets and the places she visits are wonderful and very descriptive. Sometimes very funny, but always truthful to her life and what she is feeling at the time.
Her story which at times seems a bit unbelievable, just furthers our perception of who she is and who she wants to become, all of the while showing us her conflicts between, family life and the independence of being a writer and seeking out interesting stories. One becomes invested in the lives of all of the characters we read about.
The book has a few pages of graphic art and prose, which give us certain details of her life, in a condensed yet clear view of what is going on.
The author grew up going back and forth between two places, the UK where when young, the family visited an Island off the west coast of Scotland and also London and in the USA, New York, where they lived when she was young and then later in the American Mid West, very rural and the closest neighbors could be quite eccentric.
The author gets herself into some very interesting situations, from Italy to Mexico, not to mention the beginning of this book where she has visitations from and incubus.
Well worth reading as it was so interesting.
I would like to thank NetGalley and Grove Atlantic and Grove Press for the ARC of this book.
Her story which at times seems a bit unbelievable, just furthers our perception of who she is and who she wants to become, all of the while showing us her conflicts between, family life and the independence of being a writer and seeking out interesting stories. One becomes invested in the lives of all of the characters we read about.
The book has a few pages of graphic art and prose, which give us certain details of her life, in a condensed yet clear view of what is going on.
The author grew up going back and forth between two places, the UK where when young, the family visited an Island off the west coast of Scotland and also London and in the USA, New York, where they lived when she was young and then later in the American Mid West, very rural and the closest neighbors could be quite eccentric.
The author gets herself into some very interesting situations, from Italy to Mexico, not to mention the beginning of this book where she has visitations from and incubus.
Well worth reading as it was so interesting.
I would like to thank NetGalley and Grove Atlantic and Grove Press for the ARC of this book.
June 3, 2017
i loved Bellas book. she has a very emotional, strong, honest and interesting voice.
i could identify all the way thru with the what ifs, what mights, the fears of the unknown, the fear of failure the fear of boredom, the fear of reality.
i think this is her best book to date and should be read by everyone!!!
September 6, 2017
I wanted to enjoy this. But in terms of a text it was patchy. And in terms of the author, I actively disliked her by the end. And I liked her books, so that was sad.
September 23, 2017
3.5 stars. Loved the early part of the book and the very end, grappling with her parents aging and illness. Quirky and engaging, though sometimes a bit difficult to follow as she jumps around.
June 16, 2017
So, part way through the chapter I was thinking of as The Godfather chapter, I started to wonder if maybe I was reading a fiction book and not a memoir. I mean, book started out with an incubus, and I was cool with that as non-fiction, but the dappled Italian summers filled with olive trees and mafioso in-laws, my mind could not process that as anything other than fiction. Is that a failure as a memoir or a success for a creative non-fiction piece? We have a Woody-Allen-1970s-New-York childhood crisis, a Godfather quarter-life crisis, a Thelma-and-Louise roadtrip-type crisis, a Cormac McCarthy forties crisis, and a British stiff-upper-lip NHS healthcare crisis. And an incubus (we'll call that a pale Paranormal Activity crisis). And comics ( Fun Home?). The whole book has a cinematic feel, a poor-little-rich-girl-wandering-to-try-and-find-herself feel that may not be relatable: I, for one, do not have a vacation house in Colorado and a non-vacation house in England; I've never tried to cross the Mexican-US border illegally for a magazine story; I'm not married to a prime minister's grandson, etc.
So something about Meet Me in the In-Between doesn't seem real. I'm guessing that's the point of meeting Pollen in the in-between. Real, not real, incubus, mafioso, Colorado, sharp, unexpected turns like in a dream. Off-putting but neither in a bad nor a good way.
Meet Me in the In-Between by Bella Pollen went on sale June 16, 2017.
I received a copy free from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.
So something about Meet Me in the In-Between doesn't seem real. I'm guessing that's the point of meeting Pollen in the in-between. Real, not real, incubus, mafioso, Colorado, sharp, unexpected turns like in a dream. Off-putting but neither in a bad nor a good way.
Meet Me in the In-Between by Bella Pollen went on sale June 16, 2017.
I received a copy free from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.
July 1, 2017
----Full disclosure: I received this book for free from Goodreads. ---- If you dislike stories that waver from traditional format, or require things to be laid out linearly, then this is not for you. If you don't well tolerate non-concrete ways of being, feeling, and experiencing life, then skip this tale. However, if you often feel that you are living somewhere in-between the ways other people go through life, if you never feel quite settled anywhere, have a look at this and know that there others like us out there, moving through life's ether, tasting everything.
October 17, 2017
I picked this up off the features shelf in a hurry, not noticing it was a memoir. Usually I don't like memoirs that much, because honestly I feel like most people just don't have that much interesting to say about their own lives. This one is a bit rocky at the start - the whole incubus thing is pretty rough - but it got much better, to the point where I really did feel like she spoke to some emotional truth that I understood. A good read, after all.
June 21, 2018
A series of fatastical vignettes cherry-picked by the author that comes to nothing except portraying an author who is self-absorbed, delusional, bored of privelege and actually quite nasty to other people. I'm not convinced this is a memoir and, if it is, the author needs to see a therapist (which she refuses because she'll just sleep with them. This is what she says. No joke). She writes vivid descriptions though, and the illustrations are nice. Otherwise, awful. Avoid.
January 9, 2020
This book caught me at the perfect time, I read it in two sittings, and just enjoyed Bella's story. I can absolutely see why it isn't for everyone, and I could see myself reading it six months from now and not liking it at all. That said, there are many beautiful observations about love and life wrapped up in this book, and those are the gems I am always reading to uncover.
March 16, 2018
I was surprised by this book. As a Bella Pollen aficionado, even I struggled to start this book, so put off was I by the succubus. Once that had been suffered though, this book was as beautifully written and revealing as any could be. A truly beautiful and unusual book.
December 31, 2021
I wish I’d lived this book right to the end, but unfortunately, I got annoyed with Belle during her white savior reporting. I thought the graphics added a lot to the playfulness and surprises. Wish she hadn’t turned out so self-absorbed.
July 18, 2017
The writing and structure of this memoir was refreshing. I couldn't help but feel the distance that the author was putting between herself and the reader, but that was okay for me.
July 19, 2018
Enjoyed reading this book very much , well written , very brave young woman and very funny story about herself. Loved it .
August 18, 2018
Absolutely delicious. Especially when she was the evil middle child! I need Bella Pollen to write more books.
December 7, 2019
She's a good writer, though thankfully I couldn't relate to her very much.
February 4, 2017
This is the first e-book I have ever read (yes, I know it is 2017) and also the first book I have ever requested an advanced copy of from NetGalley, and I'm really fortunate to have such an enjoyable first experience. (I love holding and smelling a tangible object while reading and was not sure how transitioning to a Kindle would go, but had surprising positive results!)
I will admit, yes, that a lot of times I choose a book based on it's cover, and I would lie if I told you otherwise with Meet Me in The In-Between. Having only read half of the blurb, I had no idea this piece was a memoir until about 1/4 of the way through. I randomly Googled the author after instantly falling in love with her writing, and became even more awestruck. The 4 am ghost visits, the pet bird that drinks like a sailor, marrying into a mafia family, secret underground trafficking tunnels via Mexico, stranger danger in the park... not fictitious after all as I had so quickly assumed! Bella Pollen is a treat. I would love to read anything and everything else she has written. My favorite line, in reference to her father who lived over an hour away at the time: "It's no accident that we are sometimes accidentally in the same place at the same time." When they show up solo at the same movie theatre to see the exact same film, as Bella is in labor. And they share popcorn and make small talk instead of rushing to the nearest hospital. That is a fucking gold mine of a movie scene right there, folks. You can't make that shit up.
I will admit, yes, that a lot of times I choose a book based on it's cover, and I would lie if I told you otherwise with Meet Me in The In-Between. Having only read half of the blurb, I had no idea this piece was a memoir until about 1/4 of the way through. I randomly Googled the author after instantly falling in love with her writing, and became even more awestruck. The 4 am ghost visits, the pet bird that drinks like a sailor, marrying into a mafia family, secret underground trafficking tunnels via Mexico, stranger danger in the park... not fictitious after all as I had so quickly assumed! Bella Pollen is a treat. I would love to read anything and everything else she has written. My favorite line, in reference to her father who lived over an hour away at the time: "It's no accident that we are sometimes accidentally in the same place at the same time." When they show up solo at the same movie theatre to see the exact same film, as Bella is in labor. And they share popcorn and make small talk instead of rushing to the nearest hospital. That is a fucking gold mine of a movie scene right there, folks. You can't make that shit up.
January 18, 2018
This book is like sitting with your best friend who also happens to be a phenomenal story teller. Filled with humor as well as heartbreak, various situations arise in which the author is looking for just about anything to alleviate a stagnant lifestyle. You will find yourself transported to different locales and meeting truly unique individuals that are expertly described by the author. I'd love to hang out with her any time!
Want to read
June 18, 2017I received this book for free through Goodreads Giveaways. It is an uncorrected proof.
Read
July 20, 2018I won this book via Goodreads First Reads. I am an ECE Administrator and I look forward to adding this book to the lending library for parents and staff at my school.
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