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Essais Series #11
Begin By Telling
Never forget /
to connect the dots /
This book is an attempt to connect a couple.
In Begin by Telling, experimental pop sensation and Polaris nominee Meg Remy spins a web out from her body to myriad corners of American hyper-culture. Through illustrated lyric essays depicting memories from early childhood to present day, Remy paints a stark portrait of a spectacle-driven country.
These memories are visceral. As though channel surfing, we catch glimpses of Desert Storm, the Oklahoma City Bombing, random street violence, the petrochemical industry, small town Deadheads, a toilet with uterus lining in it, the county STD clinic, and missionaries at the front door. Each is shared through language of the body; the sensation of experiencing many of the defining events and moments of a country.
These threads nimbly interweave with probing quotes and statistics, demonstrating the importance of personal storytelling, radical empathy, and the necessity of reflecting on society and one’s self within that construct.
Immersive and utterly compelling, Begin by Telling is an artifact of our time; a fascinating perspective on American culture.
Praise for Begin By Telling:
"Begin By Telling explores the horrors and absurdity of being a 'girl' in the mediated warscape of America. With sharp emotional intelligence, Remy reveals a cultural systemic rot that begins with family and fractals out into school, life, the media, the government, and history. Both hallucinogenic and lucid, this work is a radical interrogation of trauma, and a literary salve for the feminist psyche." —Michelle Tea, author of Black Wave and Against Memoir: Complaints, Confessions and Criticisms
to connect the dots /
This book is an attempt to connect a couple.
In Begin by Telling, experimental pop sensation and Polaris nominee Meg Remy spins a web out from her body to myriad corners of American hyper-culture. Through illustrated lyric essays depicting memories from early childhood to present day, Remy paints a stark portrait of a spectacle-driven country.
These memories are visceral. As though channel surfing, we catch glimpses of Desert Storm, the Oklahoma City Bombing, random street violence, the petrochemical industry, small town Deadheads, a toilet with uterus lining in it, the county STD clinic, and missionaries at the front door. Each is shared through language of the body; the sensation of experiencing many of the defining events and moments of a country.
These threads nimbly interweave with probing quotes and statistics, demonstrating the importance of personal storytelling, radical empathy, and the necessity of reflecting on society and one’s self within that construct.
Immersive and utterly compelling, Begin by Telling is an artifact of our time; a fascinating perspective on American culture.
Praise for Begin By Telling:
"Begin By Telling explores the horrors and absurdity of being a 'girl' in the mediated warscape of America. With sharp emotional intelligence, Remy reveals a cultural systemic rot that begins with family and fractals out into school, life, the media, the government, and history. Both hallucinogenic and lucid, this work is a radical interrogation of trauma, and a literary salve for the feminist psyche." —Michelle Tea, author of Black Wave and Against Memoir: Complaints, Confessions and Criticisms
96 pages, Hardcover
First published March 16, 2021
2 people are currently reading
265 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews
March 12, 2021
BEGIN BY TELLING by Meg Remy is a really compelling memoir! I’ve never read a memoir quite like this one due to the super unique format. This book reads like a personal journal with illustrations and writing that includes diary type entries of memories, many quotes and a remembered transcript of a conversation. Remy is brutally honest and her creative mind leaps off the page. It was an enjoyable reading experience because with every turn of the page I didn’t know what to expect. It could be one sentence or a drawing. This book is intense, experimental, forthright and original but if only it was longer! It’s only 96 pages so it’ll probably be my shortest read of the year.
Thank you to Book Hug Press for my advance reading copy!
Bookstagram: @tinamayreads
Thank you to Book Hug Press for my advance reading copy!
Bookstagram: @tinamayreads
April 15, 2021
A candid and compelling book about the difficult decision to share your truth in the wake of abuse. I interviewed the author for The Current.
April 25, 2022
This is a very honest and raw book of poetry, scripts, and art talking about the authors experience with sex, abortion, assault, and relationships in general. I really enjoyed the multi-media effect of the book and hearing someone’s deeply personal experiences expressed in such a unique way. I don’t know if it’s a memoir or a poetry book but either way it’s a very intense and personal piece of work that is a good read if you’re looking for something like this.
January 22, 2021
Meg Remy is an artist who is part of U.S. Girls. She lists Riot grrrl and Crass as influences. This shows in this short book (96 pages) which is an experimental trip through notions and experiences in North America.
> \[…\] we catch glimpses of Desert Storm, the Oklahoma City Bombing, random street violence, the petrochemical industry, small town Deadheads, a toilet with uterus lining in it, the county STD clinic, and missionaries at the front door. Each is shared through language of the body; the sensation of experiencing many of the defining events and moments of a country.
>
> Publisher’s info
Some of Remy’s prose is lovely stream-of-consciousness:
> No, no, no. It’s Desert Storm, one s. OR Choices! Operation Desert Shield, The Gulf War, Persian Gulf War, The 1st Gulf War, Gulf War I, First Iraq War, Kuwait War. OR A triple series ofTopps playing cards, exactly like the sports cards boys have binders full of. Series 1 – Coalition for Peace Series 2 – Victory Series Series 3 – Homecoming Edition Finally, memorabilia I can understand. I shuffle through them like they’re part of some memory matching game. Daddy’s Home, Carpet Bombing, Stopping the Oil’s Flow…
Other fragments are so tiny that it’s nearly impossible to shake how hyperkinetic this book is:
> \*Monica Lewinsky’s internship was unpaid.
The book follows me slightly, and some of its phrases slip into my conscious and are interesting; Other bits of information quickly fall to the wayside.
This is a laudable and brief effort; I wish there had been more focus on the content, which would undoubtedly have weaved a more comprehensive story than this book.
On the other hand, it _is_ more interesting than a lot of memoirs that often leave me with boring interludes. This book is not boring, no matter how you turn it, and that is, in itself, a short storm of fresh air.
> \[…\] we catch glimpses of Desert Storm, the Oklahoma City Bombing, random street violence, the petrochemical industry, small town Deadheads, a toilet with uterus lining in it, the county STD clinic, and missionaries at the front door. Each is shared through language of the body; the sensation of experiencing many of the defining events and moments of a country.
>
> Publisher’s info
Some of Remy’s prose is lovely stream-of-consciousness:
> No, no, no. It’s Desert Storm, one s. OR Choices! Operation Desert Shield, The Gulf War, Persian Gulf War, The 1st Gulf War, Gulf War I, First Iraq War, Kuwait War. OR A triple series ofTopps playing cards, exactly like the sports cards boys have binders full of. Series 1 – Coalition for Peace Series 2 – Victory Series Series 3 – Homecoming Edition Finally, memorabilia I can understand. I shuffle through them like they’re part of some memory matching game. Daddy’s Home, Carpet Bombing, Stopping the Oil’s Flow…
Other fragments are so tiny that it’s nearly impossible to shake how hyperkinetic this book is:
> \*Monica Lewinsky’s internship was unpaid.
The book follows me slightly, and some of its phrases slip into my conscious and are interesting; Other bits of information quickly fall to the wayside.
This is a laudable and brief effort; I wish there had been more focus on the content, which would undoubtedly have weaved a more comprehensive story than this book.
On the other hand, it _is_ more interesting than a lot of memoirs that often leave me with boring interludes. This book is not boring, no matter how you turn it, and that is, in itself, a short storm of fresh air.
April 9, 2021
A gallop past what life may deliver.
The things (I) (you) we go through + must overcome.
A man can never understand a father abusing his daughter.
A son can never comprehend why his mother abandoned him at birth.
The mother could never understand why her father sent her to an abhorrent place to give birth—only to try to have her fixed and become marriageable.
And the world is too filled with (I) (you) we, strapped in the shackles of conditioning + fuelled by daily noise, for some of us, not to become broken, flawed, violent.
Do we need professional sports?
“Begin by Telling,” triggered in me, unfixable memories I live every day…must live every day.
“Begin by Telling” awakened me to the weight + beauty of listening because if we did, we’d understand listening is the root of kindness + shines a bright light on the path to a better world.
That’s how this book made me feel.
In my Top 25!
“I’m not pregnant in the pandemic. I pray for anyone who needs an abortion during this time.”
WRITTEN: April 9, 2021
The things (I) (you) we go through + must overcome.
A man can never understand a father abusing his daughter.
A son can never comprehend why his mother abandoned him at birth.
The mother could never understand why her father sent her to an abhorrent place to give birth—only to try to have her fixed and become marriageable.
And the world is too filled with (I) (you) we, strapped in the shackles of conditioning + fuelled by daily noise, for some of us, not to become broken, flawed, violent.
Do we need professional sports?
“Begin by Telling,” triggered in me, unfixable memories I live every day…must live every day.
“Begin by Telling” awakened me to the weight + beauty of listening because if we did, we’d understand listening is the root of kindness + shines a bright light on the path to a better world.
That’s how this book made me feel.
In my Top 25!
“I’m not pregnant in the pandemic. I pray for anyone who needs an abortion during this time.”
WRITTEN: April 9, 2021
September 26, 2022
See this review and more on Books and Ladders!
Disclaimer: I received a free copy of this and chose to review it. This in no way impacts my opinion.
Content Warning: rape, abortion, cutting, suicide ideation, self-harm, pedophilia
I really enjoyed the layout of this one, the different styles of text, and the way that it was written. There were some heavy topics in this, but the important message of sharing your story and how you do it came through on all of them.
This is a mixture of memoir and poetry, with it feeling more like a written down version of spoken word rather than your "typical" poetry collection. If you enjoyed blud by Rachel McKibbens, you'll enjoy this!
Like my reviews? Buy me a Ko-Fi!
Disclaimer: I received a free copy of this and chose to review it. This in no way impacts my opinion.
Content Warning: rape, abortion, cutting, suicide ideation, self-harm, pedophilia
I really enjoyed the layout of this one, the different styles of text, and the way that it was written. There were some heavy topics in this, but the important message of sharing your story and how you do it came through on all of them.
This is a mixture of memoir and poetry, with it feeling more like a written down version of spoken word rather than your "typical" poetry collection. If you enjoyed blud by Rachel McKibbens, you'll enjoy this!
Like my reviews? Buy me a Ko-Fi!
June 8, 2021
What a powerful and compelling memoir. Begin By Telling by Meg Remy is structed like nothing I've ever read before. It's part journal, part reflection, part transcripts and full of illustrations and quotes that emphasize the content.
I had no idea what to expect every time I turned the page- in a good way. Remy is raw and honest. She doesn't hold back in her critique of American culture and ties this into her own personal experiences of being a girl in this world in a really powerful way.
This book won't be for everyone. But I encourage readers who enjoy experiential memoirs and literary fiction to pick it up. Remy has a powerful voice and message and I am so glad I read it.
Thank you to my friends at Book Hug Press for the gifted copy to read and review.
I had no idea what to expect every time I turned the page- in a good way. Remy is raw and honest. She doesn't hold back in her critique of American culture and ties this into her own personal experiences of being a girl in this world in a really powerful way.
This book won't be for everyone. But I encourage readers who enjoy experiential memoirs and literary fiction to pick it up. Remy has a powerful voice and message and I am so glad I read it.
Thank you to my friends at Book Hug Press for the gifted copy to read and review.
May 21, 2022
not sure i have words that are true enough and don’t feel trite. this book is amazing. it reflects on so many truly horrible things with such earnestness and unflinching bravery while never taking itself too seriously. it made me laugh. it made me cry. it is only 91 pages. this is a masterclass in the collaged experimental form of poetry and prose that gets right to the core What It’s Like To Be Here Now. not to mention punctuation that breaks the rules which is a direct route to my heart. this is definitely top three things i’ve read this year. i definitely recommend but trigger warnings: sa, abuse, r*pe, abortion, car accident.
January 3, 2025
The blunt parts of this essay/memoir are especially good, particularly when she is writing on the subject of rape. Other parts feel more aloof though, or like they are only scratching the surface of other essays in a kind of performative way, which makes me wonder why they are even there. I think I can envision a version of this book that is like 15-20 pages shorter and a little more thematically focused on the heart of what's working. Over all though there are couple cadences where I was like, hell yeah, even if there were a couple others were I was rolling my eyes.
May 26, 2022
There was something so oddly enjoyable about this read. Although it's segmented and a bit abstract, I still felt a sense of development and "self" of the author. Overall I felt like the beginning was stronger.
The insertion of quotes was interesting but the e-book version I read on my phone was so so terribly formatted because of the quotes in the side margins. 3.5/5 Stars
The insertion of quotes was interesting but the e-book version I read on my phone was so so terribly formatted because of the quotes in the side margins. 3.5/5 Stars
September 13, 2021
the author who wrote this is incredible and the intent was amazing. sadly i’m too dumb to be able to fully understand how she wanted the reader to connect things. but in reading this as lone passages in someone’s life it was amazing. the writing and the topics were wonderful.
December 30, 2023
An emotional, close and everyday tale of how life goes for a woman, or maybe anybody who isn't a straight white male. Made me think of the style of "I remember" kinda book, but focused, feminist and no holding back.
October 13, 2025
Hay muchísimo potencial por explorar aquí (el trauma, el sexo, el círculo de protección de las amigas) pero se queda en un ensayo rápido que da pinceladas de todo bañado con una pátina de humor que meh.
May 11, 2021
Here's my review in THE WOVEN TALE PRESS:
https://www.thewoventalepress.net/202...
https://www.thewoventalepress.net/202...
January 5, 2022
Exceptional and brilliant work. Much like her music it's honed, crafted and alluring. Frank and honest portrayal of a woman who survives. Beautiful, harsh, raw and supremely poetic.
January 17, 2022
In terms of US Girls albums: not quite as good as In A Poem Unlimited or Half Free, about as good as Heavy Light.
September 24, 2023
Commence par raconter - (ed.Premier parallèle)
September 9, 2024
Relatively standard memoir that captures the main world events of the era, alongside the unfortunate realities of sexual violence.
Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews