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In which I ruminate and kind of review the gripping and sad and frustrating, transparent and ugly and beautiful novel Be Brief and Tell Them Everything by Brad Listi at LitReactor.

· Brad Listi,LitReactor,Book Review,Auto Fiction,Novel
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Which is to say, you can read "Be Brief and Tell Them Everything": A Rumination and Kind of Review" at LitReactor here. You may also read some excerpt below. And please do most definitely read Be Brief and Tell Them Everything, because it will most definitely change your life.

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"There is this nesting thing happening in my brain, there is a public figure, Brad Listi, I kind of know because I kind of know the person on a personal level, though really I don’t, and I supplement what I think I know about that person by listening to their podcast, where said person, in this case Brad Listi, podcaster and author, talks about themselves and their life, including his efforts to write his second novel, which not unlike Russian Doll and Stranger Things, is parts metaphysical and horror story, involves the convoluted relationships and emotions that family brings, the effort to search for meaning and a desire to illustrate one’s personal narrative.

"It is also a road novel.

"A celebration of the potential for drug use to achieve something.

"All that and a desire to illuminate the act of the creation.

"As I said it makes sense.

"To me.

"But what is it?

"Which, reader please note, is not a comment on quality. Be Brief and Tell Them Everything is gripping and sad and frustrating, transparent and ugly and beautiful.

"It’s a gut punch.

"I love a good gut punch.

"On paper.

"But what is it?

"It is auto fiction, the story of someone’s story, Listi’s, a literary regurgitation of some kind, an interpretation of the facts of his life as he knows them (and listeners like myself think we know them), and what it means to write that story, to attempt to make sense of the joys, frustrations, triumphs, failures and fears, so much fear, of living, parenting and creating."