Publish This Book

I just finished reading Stephen Makley's Publish This Book. He writes a charming tale of how he conceived, wrote, and published the very book the reader holds. I liked it. The thing is in high school, he was everything I wanted to be. We graduated together in '02, and he fulfilled that niche in our class that I wanted to occupy but lacked the temerity or the confidence to claim. He was current, handsome, incisively sardonic. We didn't really hang out, and at times he grated on me. I was a strange, lonely teenager. I generally kept my head down, never went to parties. It's funny, because Stephen relates an anecdote about telling his parents he was going to a party and telling his friends he was staying home and just driving around Knox County, Ohio instead. I also made the same lie to escape to our verdant farmland. I viewed him very much as my foil. We're of similar heights and builds and coloring. His eyes blue, mine hazel. Similar talents and aspirations, though he was active and industrious and prolific while I slacked, sulking in my sense that my talents entitled me. Sometimes I resented his good "luck", blind to his drive to succeed and the sweat of his brow. We've hung out a few times in the years since graduation, more than we ever had in High School and I've grown to like him very much. As my view of him sharpened and he coalesced into a real person, I saw a fun-loving, opinionated guy, faithful to his friends, funny, smart, irreverent. He's great to drink with is what I'm saying. I'd probably never call him to chat, but I look forwad to the future Thanksgivings and Christmases and reunions for his infectious humor.

Stephen's book is very writerly. Large sections discuss subjects like the definition and veracity of the memoir form, playful uses of running text (a poetic recollection of one of those magical nights that never end) and footnotes (which I hate, unless I am reading an anthology and I just want all writers to stop using footnotes. Damn you House of Leaves!). It was amazing to read in print references to people and places who populate my own memory, and when Stephen opened up and crafted something touching between the shit jokes and the boozy, sweaty haze, I felt like I was getting to know someone who had eluded me all those years ago. While sometimes overblown, the face Markley presents in Publish This Book, is as authentic as they come. Most of all, the very concept of the book to me is genius, and Stephen's exploration of the boundaries between life and work are riveting. He seems possessed by the book, at times. Towards the end, the concept dissolves as the writer eclipses the work and the book is sort of passed off to the publisher. Stephen emerges as the star of the show. He does it well, and his book will forever be one of my favorites.