Horror Stories

A Memoir

De: Liz Phair

Narrado por: Liz Phair

The two-time Grammy-nominated singer-songwriter behind the groundbreaking album Exile in Guyville traces her life and career in a genre-bending memoir in stories about the pivotal moments that haunt her.

When Liz Phair shook things up with her musical debut, Exile in Guyville - making her as much a cultural figure as a feminist pioneer and rock star - her raw candor, uncompromising authenticity, and deft storytelling inspired a legion of critics, songwriters, musicians, and fans alike. Now, like a Gen X Patti Smith, Liz Phair reflects on the path she has taken in these piercing essays that reveal the indelible memories that have stayed with her.

For Phair, horror is in the eye of the beholder - in the often unrecognized universal experiences of daily pain, guilt, and fear that make up our humanity. Illuminating despair with hope and consolation, tempering it all with her signature wit, Horror Stories is immersive, taking listeners inside the most intimate junctures of Phair’s life, from facing her own bad behavior and the repercussions of betraying her fundamental values, to watching her beloved grandmother inevitably fade, to undergoing the beauty of childbirth while being hit up for an autograph by the anesthesiologist.

Horror Stories is a literary accomplishment that reads like the confessions of a friend. It gathers up all of our isolated shames and draws them out into the light, uniting us in our shared imperfection, our uncertainty and our cowardice, smashing the stigma of not being in control. But most importantly, the uncompromising precision and candor of Horror Stories transforms these deeply personal experiences into tales about each and every one of us.

Musical interludes composed and performed by Liz Phair.

Advance praise for Horror Stories

"Liz Phair’s songwriting has always had the rare quality of being short-story-like. Damn good short stories, too. Horror Stories has that unique Liz Phair ability to make you look at something you’d rather not, but once you do you’re glad you did - like any form of honest art. This is why Liz Phair still is, and always will be, a threat." (Ben Folds)

©2019 Liz Phair (P)2019 Random House Audio

Reseñas de la Crítica

"Liz Phair’s Horror Stories is a deeply personal narrative about a ground-breaking musician’s intense love affair with life, with all its turbulent highs and lows. It is also about those things that have sustained Phair since childhood: the wonder and healing power of nature, music, and family. A compelling blend of riveting prose and soaring lyricism, Horror Stories is as enthralling and as addictive as Phair's music." (Mira Bartók, New York Times best-selling author of The Memory Palace, winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award)

"Horror Stories is a collection of turning points, plucked free of ongoing time and their original settings. Gathered, they sparkle eerily, expanding to occupy an entire remembered year - maybe even an entire remembered self." (Sarah Manguso)

"Horror Stories cracks open the idea of fear itself to see what's inside. Liz Phair’s stories are heartbreaking and inspiring, galvanizing and contemplative. This memoir is as much about the poignant luminosity of the subjects upon which Phair fixes her gaze as it is about the darkness she shows us. Witnessing her examine the moments that have stayed with her over the years is captivating: a literary triumph by a musical icon." (Lily Brooks-Dalton, author of Good Morning, Midnight)

Unapologetically Liz

Addictive listen with beautiful musical bridges between chapters. The stories each stand alone but also flow as one, honestly revealing her good and bad sides. She’s a clear voice of Gen X

Excellent memoir

Loved this memoir. So heartbreaking, and heartwarming at the same time. Very well written and spoken.

Especially for Gen X women ....

Especially chapter 1 about guilt, chapter 14 about sexual harassment, assault and stalking, chapter 15
about depression and suicide, and chapter 17 about growing old were powerful, but I like the deep stuff. But this book has everything: comedy, girly superficiality, and supernatural profound depth.

The music & beyond: Reflecting on an amazing life

Never a full moment in this rocker's life. a fun and deep reflection on Liz's childhood, career and attempt to be an adult. She does a great job narrating.

Profound

I know Liz from college, and am good friends with “Peter,” so it was neat (and strange) to learn more about their connection. That’s really a small point, though—what drew me in is that Liz is so honest and reflective in her (fantastic) reading of these stories. Especially powerful for me were the Trader Joe and grandmother Winnie chapters.

Elephant Ignored

This is simultaneously a remarkable and bitterly disappointing book. (Thus the 3 stars.)
I'll break it down. The 5-star part first…
First off, Liz Phair is nothing short of brilliant. I don't necessarily mean in terms of booksmarts, or even common sense, or even maturity, or learning from her mistakes… But I mean in the more important existential and wise and creative senses.
She is herein not afraid to bare her soul in every manner, and entertain us along the way. In that sense, and especially if you weren't really aware of who Liz Phair is, this is a wonderful and enthralling memoir, and you can end this review here, and blissfully purchase and enjoy it.
Before we get to the one star portion, I should at least make note of the wonderful little musical interludes at the end of each chapter, custom snippets that Liz herself did for our listening pleasure (says ChatGPT)… Much appreciated.
OK, here we go… You may have noticed I mentioned the term "bare her soul" above… This is legit in every way, and it is much appreciated, with the caveat that there is one glaring exception… It is the massive hairy smelly elephant which Liz spends the entire book ignoring.
Liz Phair made some of the most truly high-quality rock music to be found in the 1990s. And that's saying something. And even the term "rock music" doesn't do it justice… it was rock, but it's also twangy pop, and rhythm & blues, and heaping doses of the dirty-minded girl sitting across from you on the L train, who has probably never actually had random furtive public sex with someone, but she's definitely thinking about it.
But here's the thing: The above paragraph? It probably should've started out with, "For her first three albums...". because for her first three albums, the singer/songwriter/musician bona fides were off the charts. Most especially Exile In Guyville, her first album, a legit Indie rock masterpiece.
Then came that fourth album, in 2003.
I understand the rationale, really I do. All the critical acclaim and street cred in the world doesn't pay the bills. But we have to call a spade a spade. With the opening notes of the mindless bubblegum pop "Why can't I?" with its overproduction and it's cutesy little echoing vocals, we Liz Phair fans realize that Something Happened. And that something was not something good.
The word "sellout" is cliché to the point of banality within rock music, especially "indie" rock music… But if it doesn't apply in the case of Liz Phair, I'm really not sure if it's ever applied anywhere. I could go on and on about this, but I'll leave it there. All I can say is if you want to sample the true creative musical brilliance of Liz, you must limit yourself to the first three albums, and then go ahead and pretend she fell off the musical map, and became a cashier at Trader Joe's, or something like that.
So why am I harping on this painful subject? Because, for whatever bewildering reason, IT IS NEVER ADDRESSED IN THE BOOK! This fact is almost as unforgivable as the actual sellout move in 2003. I think there is one oblique reference to "her critics" around that time. That's it. And while we're at it, the thing that Liz Phair is most known for in the wider world, her MUSIC, is given decidedly short shrift in this book. Why is that? I sure would've like to hear about whatever led her to "The Divorce Song" or "F and Run." (If i were to print the term, the Victorian algorithms that control our lives would likely see to it that this review wouldn't post.) I would've loved to hear if in hindsight the brief fling of pop success with the poppy-yet-still-sincere "Supernova" presaged her shameful Turn a few years later. Methinks the notable lack of all things music in this book is related to this Turn. If you don't talk much about the music at all, then you don't really need to address the musical "sellout" charges, right?
This doesn't cut it. For someone willing to talk frankly about her w.a.p., leaving out the most notable and infamous episode of her previously-brilliant career tells us that even baring one's soul has its off-limits areas.
If you were a fan of her music like I was, this glaring omission about the horrific turn between albums 3 and 4 will hang over every sentence of this otherwise fine work. But if you are not in this category, well, I guess I would just say happy listening! But still, regardless of all that, get thee to your local music streaming service or YouTube and treat yourself to a little Exile In Guyville, because rock music never got much better than that.

Lyrical and Beautiful

I really enjoyed this audiobook. The way Liz Phair writes is poetic and accessible. I felt myself there with her with such evocative, lush descriptions, and found myself nodding over and over again in agreement to her raw honesty. I was sad when it was over.

Thank you for sharing your story...

Real and down to earth. It's difficult to be human and easy to forget celebrities are human too...

Loved it!

I am a big Liz Phair music fan so I was excited to read (listen to) this! It is not like a typical memoir with a life story, but different meaningful points of her life that were scary or sad or times of change. The stories were very captivating. We all have those bad memories that stick with us and make us feel awkward or sad. Her writing is amazing. You feel like you are going through everything with her.

Good collection of essays more than a memoir

Best to not think of it as an autobiography. Liz takes us through several scenes in her life that exemplify her growth as an artist and person.
There's not a lot of name dropping or wild stories like some rock and roll memoirs. There's no track-by-track breakdown of how she accomplished her artistic vision.
Considering how finely hewn her songwriter's wit is on albums, it's not as apparent in the book. Her chapters on her infidelities and the MeToo movement are the most compelling, but she doesn't reveal too much. In the last chapter she talks about her gift of meeting people on their emotional turf without betraying too much of her own feelings. That's happening a bit here in this book.
It's still a good book and she performs it very well.