gorillahands's review against another edition
4.0
This is a fascinating book. The transcriptions in the book feel real in the pages, you feel as if these events are happening again or happening for the first time (if you were not born yet) that is gives a look at the world of humans and news when they are talking about real time events with no script or preparation that the humanity of the person shows through.
It is a quick read but you may need to put down the book after reading an account just to say 'fuck?!'.
It is a quick read but you may need to put down the book after reading an account just to say 'fuck?!'.
thepaige_turner's review against another edition
3.0
Check out my review here: http://thepaigeturnerblog.wordpress.com/2014/09/05/seven-american-deaths-and-disasters-by-kenneth-goldsmith/
ermohai14's review against another edition
5.0
Clearly a fast read (finished in two days). I couldn't put it down. It was a great way to experience events that shaped our country (even the pop culture events). Without a doubt the recounting of 9/11 was the most moving for me. But being able to "expereince" the other events as if I was there when they happened was also emotional and enlightening. I recommend this book wholeheartedly.
sixdaysago's review against another edition
4.0
As an exercize in collage poetry, it's a clever journey into both nostalgic tragedy and conceptual narrative structure as told through a copy-paste method of transcription of radio broadcasts. In the practice of reading, however, Goldsmith's book is a series of truly haunting accounts whose power is amplified by dramatic irony and the interpretation of tone.
By deconstructing an aural medium on the page, the reader has to recreate and reinterpret these broadcasts based on personal recollection and individual engagement with radio content. As most of the events in the book happened before I was born, there's an eerie sense of distance between my readings and reality, or at least this depiction of reality. Even 9/11, at which point I was still in junior school, is at a distance, as my personal experience of the day is patchy and stilted, seeing only snippets of news broadcasts that morning.
What Goldsmith is able to do so effectively is not only force an instant reaction to past events through a free-flowing dialogue but also allows us to find characters in these announcers and, perhaps as a result of the laguage chosen and the rhythm of the writing, see them quite vividly.
By deconstructing an aural medium on the page, the reader has to recreate and reinterpret these broadcasts based on personal recollection and individual engagement with radio content. As most of the events in the book happened before I was born, there's an eerie sense of distance between my readings and reality, or at least this depiction of reality. Even 9/11, at which point I was still in junior school, is at a distance, as my personal experience of the day is patchy and stilted, seeing only snippets of news broadcasts that morning.
What Goldsmith is able to do so effectively is not only force an instant reaction to past events through a free-flowing dialogue but also allows us to find characters in these announcers and, perhaps as a result of the laguage chosen and the rhythm of the writing, see them quite vividly.
cgreaten's review
5.0
Pretty interesting concept for a book. Transcripts of events that shaped the United States starting with the JFK assassination. The emotions displayed by the reporters and DJs as the react to the unfolding events rather reporting events that have already occurred is fascinating.
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