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A review by llatai
MFA in a Box by John Rember
5.0
I was fortunate enough to purchase a used copy of this book from an online retailer, complete with cynical-scolding scribblings of disagreement along the margins in nearly every essay. (Nearly. It was easy to tell where the previous owner/reader gave up, as the unsolicited Hot Takes abruptly stopped three essays from the end. Here's a super cool idea: if you hate a book so much that you intend to deface it so thoroughly, make sure you also scribble a link to your blog post/review on the inside of the front cover so your unwilling audience can feel like they have some faculty in the decision.)
I wrote my own notes in the margins of this book. In pen. Which is fine, because I'm not going to sell it to a used bookstore. I can't promise it won't end up there when I die, but this is already getting a little too pessimistic/existential for a casual Goodreads review, so let's agree to abandon that trajectory. Flipping back through my notes, the general sentiment I seemed to express - the general feeling I experienced while reading this work - was that of being witnessed. Seen/heard/known.
Let me put this another way: my college writing program ruined writing for me - which, for me, is no different from saying that it slowly and steadily devoured my soul. I went to college for writing because writing was what I loved and what I felt compelled to do with my life and my time, and it didn't turn out the way I thought/hoped it would.
This book helped me understand why. It also helped me consider all the ways I might recover what I've lost.
Read this if you can't remember why you bother.
I wrote my own notes in the margins of this book. In pen. Which is fine, because I'm not going to sell it to a used bookstore. I can't promise it won't end up there when I die, but this is already getting a little too pessimistic/existential for a casual Goodreads review, so let's agree to abandon that trajectory. Flipping back through my notes, the general sentiment I seemed to express - the general feeling I experienced while reading this work - was that of being witnessed. Seen/heard/known.
Let me put this another way: my college writing program ruined writing for me - which, for me, is no different from saying that it slowly and steadily devoured my soul. I went to college for writing because writing was what I loved and what I felt compelled to do with my life and my time, and it didn't turn out the way I thought/hoped it would.
This book helped me understand why. It also helped me consider all the ways I might recover what I've lost.
Read this if you can't remember why you bother.