The Guinness Book of Me: A Memoir of Record

by Steven Church

Pogo Stick Jumping. The greatest number of jumps achieved is 105,338 by Michael Barban in 18 hours on September 12, 1978, in Florissant, Missouri. Scott Spencer...of Wilmington, Delaware, covered 6 miles in 6 1Ï¿½2 hours in September 1974. -- Guinness Book of World Records, Giant 1980 Super-Edition In this wildly imaginative memoir about an oversized midwestern boy's obsession with the Guinness Book of World Records, a tale of growing up different takes on epic proportions. "It was the Guinness books that gave me an escape," proclaims Steven Church in this darkly comic memoir, "a strange and seductive escape into the territory of the imagination." The Guinness Book of Me recalls a perilous youth strewn with the shadows of record holders, past and present, whose cameos add layers of meaning in fabulous and unexpected ways. Have you ever wondered why someone would grow the world's longest fingernails or eat an eleven-foot tree? Steven Church has. His bizarre speculative investigations have less to do with the truth and more to do with a celebration of freaks, an exploration of memory, and an examination of identity. In fierce, muscled prose, Church explores a childhood lived between a father and younger brother who are each larger than life. Both hilarious and heartbreaking, The Guinness Book of Me will captivate and surprise you. This is more than a memoir; it's an engaging homage to pop culture, a powerful look at life's extremes, and an impressive debut from a promising young writer.

Genres: Nonfiction, Memoir

240 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2005

Reviews

[Abe Brennan · Rating 4 out of 5]

In an early review of Steve Church’s book, one critic, while giving it overall decent marks, ruminates at length on the author’s note, musings charged with skepticism, concern—even alarm—at implications he thinks the note points to—he goes so far as to question whether the death of Church’s brother actually happened (the line, “This is not a book of fact. This is a story,” really freaks him out). He needn’t have taken umbrage at Church’s cavalier dismissal of objectivity, however: the note merely serves as a funny disclaimer as to the fallibility of a subjective rendition of the “truth.” Church circumvents the problem of unknowable or fuzzy facets of nonfiction via speculation, a euphemism for "making stuff up, however ridiculous or improbable." Church uses speculation to open up creative potential and get at larger issues of truth. He essentially employs fiction within nonfiction, but he’s very above-board with it: in other words, he alerts the reader, not just with the author’s note at the beginning, but also with qualifiers within the text (“I wonder if…” or “Sometimes I imagine…” etc.). He’s able to address much through this technique, from wild, fantastical flights for creative effect to heartfelt questing for meaning. The Guiness Book riffs serve as organizing elements (literary glue, if you will) as well as thematic augmenters (e.g. Steve’s awkwardness and difficulty in coming to terms with the world are reflected in his musings on the freaks of Guiness). What might prove gimmicky in the hands of someone else acts as an interesting portal into the psyche of the author. The book is organized around the central chapter, “Danger Boys, World’s Greatest,” wherein the emotional heft of the story resides in Church’s efforts to deal with the death of his brother as well as the complicated dynamic between his brother, father, and himself. Ambiguity remains at the end of his search for meaning, but for Church, it’s the questing that’s important—any answers he stumbles across are gravy.

[Bridget · Rating 5 out of 5]

When I began reading this book I thought, great, a book about boys and men--not my thing. But, as I continued I realized this is a text about struggling through the difficulties of life, via the body, loss, or feeling other in general. Steve Church does an amazing job, through simple language and sentence contruction, that makes the reader feel like he is in the room telling the story to her. To me, that's the best kind of writing. I didn't have to work to be in the story, I just was. In addition, this is the only book that has made me cry in as long as I can remember(and it wasn't over the most difficult part in the story). I don't cry over books or movies. But it is so moving, and it felt so real to me, that it succeeded. Thanks, Steve for an invitation into a man's world--one full of honesty, adventure, joy, and suffering.

[Jane · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excerpt:
I didn’t know about the threats Dad faced. He practically forbade pessimism, insisting with zealot-like authority that everyone be happy- or at least act happy-and his philosophy made sense given the kind of world we were growing up in. We were pretty good at the whole happiness thing. But when I wandered alone in the house those early mornings, before the sun came up I sniffed this lingering scent of something buried beneath the surface- secrets never shared, fear never recognized, or loss never acknowledged.
At the time I didn’t know why…I wonder now if I knew something intuitively about our family or the world and I just wanted the house to scream about it if nobody else would. PG 67

[Susannah · Rating 5 out of 5]

I just adore this quirky memoir about his childhood obsession with the Guinness Book of World Records by Steven Church. His voice so wry and engaging, and the depth of his insight into the complexities lurking behind the day-to-day routine of family relationships is as subtle as it is eloquent. Highly recommended.

[John Beynon · Rating 4 out of 5]

Touching account of a young man fascinated with the Guinness Book of World Records. GB of World Record setters shape this memoir as Church recounts his youth and family life in the Midwest and the Rocky Mountains.