You Tell the Stories You Need to Believe: on the four seasons, time and love, death and growing up

by Rebecca Brown

In her new nonfiction work You Tell the Stories You Need To Believe, queer novelist Rebecca Brown turns her attention to life's biggest questions: time, love, and how we endure.

Since 1984, and most known for a novel written and set during the AIDS crisis (The Gifts of the Body), Rebecca Brown has been on the forefront of the avant-garde of American letters.

You Tell the Stories You Need to Believe is an exploration of the meaning of life-as told through the cycles of the year, and the art that has been produced about each of the seasons.

As Brown fans know, her distinctive sentences are reason enough to read her. One of the gifts of this book is getting to read about the artists who inspire her-from Melville to Denise Levertov, from Stravinsky to the Monkees. Not to mention the cunning and imaginative ways mythology and religion enter the mix.

Genres: Essays, Nonfiction, Memoir

98 pages, Paperback

Published March 28, 2022

About the author

Rebecca Brown’s diverse oeuvre contains collections of essays and short stories, a fictionalized autobiography, a modern bestiary, a memoir in the guise of a medical dictionary, a libretto for a dance opera, a play, and various kinds of fantasy.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rebecca_...

Reviews

[Rebecca · Rating 3 out of 5]

These four essays, which were originally commissioned for The Stranger, Seattle’s alternative weekly, and appeared in print between 2014 and 2016, move methodically through the four seasons and through the weather of the heart, which doesn’t always follow nature’s cues. Depression can linger and mock by contrast the external signs of growth and happiness; it’s no wonder that spring is dubbed the “suicide season.”

The relaxed collages of experience and research blend stories from childhood and later life with references to etymology, literature, music, mythology and poetry. Spring brings to mind the Persephone legend and Vivaldi’s compositions. Summer makes her think of riding bikes on dusty roads and a pregnant dog that turned up just before a storm. Autumn has always been for falling in or out of love. Winter is hard to trudge through, but offers compensatory blessings: “You stand inside the house of your friends and feel and see and everyone is in love and alive and you get to be here, grateful, too, however long, this time, the winter lasts.”

A danger with seasonal books is that, with nostalgia tingeing everything, you end up with twee, obvious reflections. Here, the presence of grief and mental health struggles creates a balanced tone, and while the book as a whole feels a little evanescent, it’s a lovely read.

Another favorite passage:

“Maybe like how in the winter it’s hard to imagine spring, I forgot there was anything else besides despair. I needed—I need—to remember the seasons change. I need to remember the dark abates, that light and life return. This is a story I need to believe.”

Originally published on my blog, Bookish Beck.

[Chris · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm not exactly sure how to categorize this book. A memoir? Very short essays? A book of thoughts? Brown takes us through the seasons and gives us her perspectives. Some are philosophical, some personal, all thoughtful. I love books like this, you can dip in and out whenever you want. Rebecca Brown is a new to me author and I thank Jana for giving me this book for my birthday and introducing me to her! I plan on seeking out more of her books.

[Sally · Rating 5 out of 5]

Disclosure -- I'm a big fan of Rebecca Brown's somewhat dark intensely self-mining mind with the color of the political environment we live in. No surprise -- I loved this string of pieces. Naked, a little dark, but moving.

[Jennie · Rating 5 out of 5]

A beautiful gem of a personal and philosophical examination of seasons, in all senses of the word. Renowned author Rebecca Brown writes eloquently and movingly about loss and love, alienation and togetherness, and the progression of time, evoking mythology and her own profound wisdom in this short collection of essays. Well worth an afternoon in a comfy chair. You will want extra copies for your friends!

[Taryn · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a small powerhouse of a book. Each chapter is a reflection on the seasons & various artists, philosophers & composers whose work ties into the season. A melancholy book with moments of beauty & remembrance. My only wish is that the author has gone deeper in places since this was in book form.

[Kyle · Rating 5 out of 5]

I don't know how to describe this book but it was a beautiful collection of essays about the seasons and that they mean (and how we need to believe what we think they mean). Some absolutely lovely phrases and also it's short so easy to get through and easy to want to come back to, depending on the time of year.

[Robin]

Reading a Rebecca Brown book always makes me want to read another Rebecca Brown book. Good thing she's prolific!