Cringe
Toe-Curlingly Embarassing Teenage Diaries, Letters and Bad Poetry
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- $0.99
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- $0.99
Publisher Description
Who among us hasn't suffered from the trauma of adolescence? Of great loves gained and lost all in a day and friendships forever destroyed - only to be rekindled the following Monday morning? And which of us can honestly say that we don't have a secret collection of diaries, poems and crazed love letters stashed somewhere, a cringeworthy, but touching reminder of how simple it all was once? Well, you're not alone. "Cringe" features a fist-chewingly embarrassing collection of genuine teenage musings, alongside some self-examination, background and asides from the now so-called grown-ups who once wrote them. Re-enter the wonderfully melodramatic world of the teenage mind as "Cringe" provides a glimpse of the adolescent experience in all its navel-gazing glory.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Drawn directly-as in direct reproductions-from the adolescent diaries, notes, letters and writing projects of average twenty- and thirty-somethings, this book from blogger Brown, founder of the Cringe reading series in Brooklyn, should elicit the correct reaction. Consisting of original entries, many scrawled in cryptic handwriting, coupled with present-day commentary, they hash out the anxiety, confusion and melodrama of adolescence in a number of familiar forms: "Whatever. I totally have a math test tomorrow and I'm so close to being grounded it's not even funny. My mom is a total PSYCHOTIC. Seriously." Unfortunately, the excerpts are largely unexceptional (and unfunny) and the commentary only intermittently engaging; nostalgic value, unfortunately, does not carry it nearly as far as recent, similarly-themed volumes that benefit from outrageously awkward, instant-classic photos (Camp Camp and Bar Mitzvah Disco by Roger Bennett and Jules Shell), clear presentation and canny editing (David Nadelberg's Mortified), or a singular (and whip-smart) viewpoint (Lesley Arfin's Dear Diary). In a time of internet-driven over-sharing, it seems there's still some things best left in the boxes and drawers they came from.
