If Only You People Could Follow Directions: A Memoir
3/5
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About this ebook
Jessica Hendry Nelson
JESSICA HENDRY NELSON is the author of the memoir If Only You People Could Follow Directions as well as Advanced Creative Nonfiction: A Writers’ Guide and Anthology with coauthor Sean Prentiss. Her work has appeared in Prairie Schooner, Tin House, the Threeepenny Review, North American Review, the Los Angeles Review of Books and elsewhere. She teaches at Virginia Commonwealth University and in the MFA Program at the University of Nebraska in Omaha. She lives in Richmond, Virginia.
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Reviews for If Only You People Could Follow Directions
13 ratings4 reviews
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A brutal and beautiful memoir about addiction, loss, and growth by Jessica Hendry Nelson. Nelson's prose is poetic, so even while I was upset and grieving over her subject matter I was entranced by her words. I highly recommend this if you enjoy autobiographical essays.
TRIGGER WARNING: Addiction and all it does to a person and their family. - Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5Uneven. There were times when the writing grew tiring and other times when it painted incredible scenes and feelings. The jumping around from past to present was sometimes difficult to follow.
- Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5There's a blurb on the back of this book that talks about how Nelson has taken "another familial memoir of addiction" and made it "vital" and "compelling." I have to respectfully disagree. To me, it was just "another familial memoir about addiction." While I appreciated her writing (there are some great poetic lines in here), I wasn't that into the story. Yes, the characters have their quirks and they are portrayed wonderfully well, but I've read this type of story so, so many times. Nothing about it hit me square between the eyes, which is what I want from a memoir. Also, I found it kind of scattered. It jumps around A LOT, sometimes without a section break to clue you in to what's happening. One paragraph is in the present, the next is a flashback to another time. I really wanted to like this, but it just didn't do it for me.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Jessica is an excellent writer. I enjoyed her style and descriptions. Her story was genuine, and I greatly appreciated her open and painfully exposed story of herself and her family. This is not the family next door, and yet it actually could be and that is what is scary. Jessica and her brother had a special relationship that was very close as children, but eventually is torn apart through her brother's life choices which follow in their father's footsteps. I could feel her hope and belief that things were all going to be OK, slip away as she tells the story of her dysfunctional family and their addictive behaviors. I only people could follow directions! Ultimately though, I found the story to be very sad and not entirely important enough to overcome the feelings of dread and despair produced by her inability to save her brother.I thank the publisher and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this title. I would recommend it to readers who enjoy memoirs of the struggles of ordinary people, particularly in dealing with real life problems. Just don't expect a fairy tale ending.