Insouciant and irreverent are the sort of words that come up in reviews of Dinty W. Moore's booksand, invariably, hilarious. Between Panic and Desire, named after two towns in Pennsylvania, finds Moore at the top of his astutely funny form. A book that could be named after one of its chapters, A Post-Nixon, Post-panic, Post-modern, Post-mortem, this collection is an unconventional memoir of one man and his culture, which also happens to be our own.
Blending narrative and quizzes, memory and numerology, and imagined interviews and conversations with dead presidents on TV, the book dizzily documents the disorienting experience of growing up in a postmodern world. Here we see how the major events in the author's early lifethe Kennedy assassination, Nixon's resignation, watching
Father Knows Best, and dropping acid atop the World Trade Center, to name a fewshaped the way he sees events both global and personal today. More to the point, we see how the
Trade Review“
Between Panic and Desire is more autopsy than memoir—a strange new hybrid. It's a fantasy of letting go of the things that have haunted Moore his entire life. These things do, in fact, float off the pages.”—
Los Angeles Times“[A] quirky, entertaining joyride.”—
Publishers Weekly“Moore forges a brisk, incisive, funny, sometimes silly, yet stealthily affecting memoir in essays and skits, a ‘generational autobiography,’ and good candid guy stuff. . . . Each anecdote, piece of pop-culture trivia, and frankly confessed panic and desire yields a chunk of irony and a sliver of wisdom.”—Donna Seaman,
Booklist "
Between Panic and Desire turns the memoir genre on its head as it deftly moves from essay to essay."—Peter Grandbois,
Review of Contemporary Fiction“The writing is frequently very funny; insightful, too, especially Moore’s belief that humans are generally delusional when it comes to their expectations vs. what is realistically possible. . . . The narrative has its poignant moments, particularly in Moore’s recollections of his father. And despite his fractured take on the world, his message is essentially hopeful. Moore, it seems, is moving on.”—Robert Kelly,
Library Journal“This book is funny, funny, funny. It is an unconventional—some might say, experimental—collection of frolicsome and touching personal essays. . . . [T]he book is a rare example of how unusual form actually helps. It is the ideal display for Dinty’s imagination. He daydreams. He fantasizes. He hallucinates. And this is nonfiction. For anyone who thinks the genre is nothing more than a retelling of facts, pick up a copy of
Between Panic and Desire. . . . It is literary nonfiction with integrity. And it’s fun.”—
Oxford Town“In intertwined, wildly inventive essays . . . Moore conjures up his, and our, past from a grab-bag of elements. . . . He doesn't work through this crazy salad so much as play with it, using individual motifs as shiny mosaic stones to arrange in funny, intriguing shapes.”—
Athens News"From the outset it is clear that our author, a seasoned writer of creative nonfiction, is on a quest of discovery, understanding and forgiveness. His style of writing is engaging and the structure, intriguing in this fast-paced, quirky memoir that is deadly serious."—Sue Kreke Rumbaugh,
Coal Hill Review“This is a refreshing and invigorating book, taking the predictable memoir form in new directions—playfully, sincerely, and intelligently. This is a terrific book.”—Bret Lott, author of
Jewel“Dinty W. Moore's prose is crisp and clean, his insights sparkle with biting clarity and magnetic charm. This is an unusual, joyful and compelling memoir.”—Lee Gutkind, author of
Almost Human: Making Robots Think and editor of
Creative NonfictionTable of ContentsAcknowledgments
Prologue: Between Panic and Desire
Part One. Panic
1. Introduction: Hello, My Name Is _______
2. Son of Mr. Green Jeans: A Meditation on Missing Fathers
3. Double Vision
4. Son of Richard M. Nixon
5. Three Bad Trips, 1968-77
6. Questions and Activities before Continuing
Part Two. Paranoia
7. Introduction: Imagine That
8. Baseball, Hot Dogs, Mescaline, and Chevrolet
9. Number Nine
10. 1984
11. Questions and Activities before Continuing
Part Three. Desire
12. Introduction: Why Oprah Doesn't Call
13. Son of George McManus
14. Three Milestones
15. Leonard Koan
16. Son of a Bush
17. Three Days in September
18. What You Want, What You Get, What You Need: A Post-Nixon, Post-panic, Post-modern, Post-mortem
19. "Curtis Knows Best": Towering, Permanent, Perilous, and Soon to be Televised on a Widescreen Near You
20. The Final Chapter
Index
About the Author
