Nonfiction by Julie Myerson

Nonfiction Reviews

• 
  Barbara

  Author Julie Myerson wrote an autobiographical novel about her chaotic life with her son as he descended into drug addiction in 2009. She received criticism for violating her son’s privacy. Her recent novel, “Nonfiction” is marketed as a mother’s nightmarish struggle when her daughter falls into drug addiction. The mother is a novelist, much like Myerson. I was intrigued. Is Myerson messing with the critics?
  
  This is a quiet, contemplative novel. Myerson doesn’t use narrative punctuation, so those who dislike this style of writing might be annoyed. It required me to reread many paragraphs to discern who “you” is and who “she” is. Also, the unnamed narrator describes events in which multiple characters are involved which makes it an attentive read. This is akin to one long narrated letter.
  
  Although Myerson made her child a daughter in the novel, this daughter is more boy-like in her ways of fighting and destroying her life. This comes close to autofiction. It’s sad, frightening, exhausting, and heartbreaking.
  
  As the unnamed narrator explores her relationship with her daughter, attempting to figure out where it all went wrong, she also contemplates her own relationship with her mother. Her mother is cruel and demanding. The read becomes overwhelming when the narrator needs to deal with both a destructive daughter and a cruel mother at the same time.
  
  Myerson writes in a past lover who is also manipulative towards the narrator. If there is a complaint I have, it’s that there are too many horrible characters in this story. Her husband is the only compassionate person. She isn’t a likeable character per say but given the life she leads with her daughter and mother; one can make allowances.
  
  This is raw and gritty. Myerson doesn’t hold back on the debasing life of a drug addict. This novel is being published in January 2024.
  
• 
  Judy

  If you are a mother who has had anything go wrong with your child or children, I advise you to approach this novel with extreme caution, especially if the wrong thing is still wrong.
  
  If you are a mother whose care and devotion to your child or children has been rewarded with a child or children who are fine, who are growing up as you hoped or are adults and doing well, and you have maintained your sense of self but sometimes feel judgmental towards mothers who have not managed that balancing act as well as you have, you should read this novel.
  
  It is the story of a mother and her husband whose only daughter fell into addiction as a teen, leaving them distraught, fearful for her and dreading the worst. It is mostly the mother’s story. She is a writer. When the tragedy strikes and despite all their efforts to deal with it have mostly failed, she is filled with guilt and self-blame and examines her own life to try and make some sense out of it all.
  
  It is a sad, sad story.
  
  I am a mother who has had things go wrong with my two sons. They are still wrong. I may have been an unusual mother, I may have married the wrong man, but I was not a bad mother. I have been dealing with this for a very long time and though I am in a better place now than I was, though I now have a wonderful, supportive and reliable husband, it has all taken its toll. I have often felt judged by myself and other mothers. I have also had unconditional support from my sisters and my nieces and nephews. It is all part of the tale.
  
  Julie Myerson is a British novelist with 10 previous novels to her credit though I had not known about her until the Otherppl Book Club selected this one for the January 2024 book. Her writing is beyond excellent and I want to read more.
  
• 
  cycads and ferns

  “THERE’S A NIGHT—I THINK THIS IS THE MIDDLE OF June—when we lock you in the house. We don’t want to do it, but—or so we tell each other—we seem to have no choice….So we lock all the doors and leave you with a hammer….Your father doesn’t think this is necessary, but I think it’s necessary. I don’t want you to die in a fire.”
  An unnamed narrator struggles with her daughter’s drug addiction, her relationship with her overly critical mother, the reappearance of an ex-lover, and the difficulties of a writer’s life. Much of the novel was addressed to her daughter with accounts describing the narrator and her mother’s childhoods and her daughter’s cycles through addiction and rehab. The narrator was often asked in interviews whether her novels were works of fiction or nonfiction.
  “Though not everything in the novel is real, of course. She wouldn’t want anyone to think that. Most of what she’s written is pure fiction. Or perhaps it’s more accurate to say that it’s a kind of fiction which could not possibly have been written were it not for the real things that have happened to her in her real life. But then isn’t that true of almost all novels at the end of the day?”
• 
  Audrey

  Six stars, actually. Six brutal, brutal stars. I don’t think this book is for everyone, but if you occasionally like to get absolutely destroyed by a book that will just crack your heart, well — this is it.
  
  Also, a really unique writing style that I dug.
• 
  McKay Nelson

  Well, this wrecked me. Potentially the most devastating final line I've read in a novel.
  
  I love this type of meta, tangling, spiraling fiction-but-not-fiction, especially when exploring motherhood. That this book extends to also explore how it feels to be the child of a mother and to be a writer is just beautiful. I will be thinking about it for quite a while.
  
  bonus points for second person narration done so well.
• 
  Cara

  This book is about addiction and difficult parent/child relationships.
  
  The narrator's daughter is a drug addict and it covers this in the book along with their difficult relationship with her. Also emthe narrator's relationships with other people too. I don't think this book is what I thought it would be but it was okay. 
• 
  Sacha Martin

  Nonfiction is an emotionally turbulent read, it wasn’t necessarily enjoyable but you cannot argue that Myerson is not a talented writer. It does not follow a linear pattern, she takes you on a journey of twists and turns that keep you guessing for the future and questioning the present.
• 
  Cynthia

  Nonfiction hit me hard from the start, and the battering never ceased.
  
  Naturally, I loved it.
  
  The novel contained two elements I tend to enjoy: a sad narrator and an ambiguous narrative. Structurally, however, it was not my ideal, but I was willing to accept its incoherent timeline. In fact, I think this method served as a symbol of grief and memory, as if these intangible components were sloppy, undefinable characters trying to seek out a mutual identity. I suspect that’s why its nonlinear path actually worked for me. It contributed to the depth of its impact.
  
  Julie Myerson brazenly tackled something she has (in the past) received heavy criticism for: She brought recognizable fragments of her own reality into the story, shredding the curtain of privacy. It’s not possible to separate the truth from its fiction through this work, but it is starkly painful as it reveals portions of her honest and suffering heart. She did, however, almost seem to have fun with this aspect, as if she were playfully instigating her critics while amply explaining her motives.
  
  I found pieces of myself within the relationships presented in the text. While I may not relate to every detail, I understood enough from my own experiences to know why even the simplest phrases were so profoundly tragic. But it’s often a comfort to find yourself within some tear stained pages, so I’ve no authentic complaints about the way Nonfiction wounded me.
  
  
• 
  Emer Tannam

  I liked this book a lot, but it was a tough read. I wish there had been more of it. It reminded me a lot of my late sister.
  
  It’s a beautiful, moving, gut-wrenching book.
• 
  Emelie Talledo

  4,5
• 
  Anne :D

  how do you grieve someone who isn’t physically dead? how do you emotionally let go of someone who you love very dearly?
• 
  wanji

  there's this compressing weight on my chest and it feels like i can't breath because this book has taken all the air out of me
• 
  kimberly

  a gut punch. i didn't love everything about it but i loved many pieces of it very fiercely. devastatingly beautiful.
• 
  Loraine

  I read this book first and some reviews after - can a writer separate their lives and experiences from their work is a theme explored throughout which is interesting. To me It felt like I was reading a traumatic diary of depression and tragedy - a life full of sadness with even the happy moments tinged with an inevitability of disaster. At the end though I was left with unresolved questions about one of the main characters as there is a late suggestion of a fidelity unexplained and I thought this passing reference was frustrating.
• 
  Courtney Elizabeth

  “It’s a fact which so many people in the world take for granted, but it’s never occurred to me before. The strength and confidence that comes from being loved by a parent, it’s astonishing—I suppose I’ve never given it any thought.”
• 
  Lindsay Hunter

  So much good stuff about writing in this wrenching book about a mother and her addict child. I underlined so many passages.
• 
  Becky

  3.5
• 
  Cherise Wolas

  Compelling, a heartbreaking story - generational trauma, the unknowability of those we love, including, and often especially, how our actions may or may not be responsible, told without undue sentimentality.
• 
  Michelle Leung

  Definitely not for the faint hearted, but such an intense, beautifully written novel about motherhood and addiction, and a commentary on fiction and autobiography. The author herself was the center of some controversy when she published a memoir about her son's own addiction- this was at the time heavily criticized as the greatest betrayal.
  
  How bold to call this new fiction novel "Non Fiction" - I read this as a little "fuck you" to the critics and I just loved it. This time, the narrator is a writer struggling with her relationship with her mother, while her own daughter has a heroin addiction - she is in and out of rehab. She also has a lover that has been floating in and out of her life and a husband she tries her hardest to maintain some connection with.
  
  The novel's exploration of trauma over generations - troubled grandmother - mother - daughter is at the heart of the story, and the daughter's descent and spiral is while difficult to read, just gripping. Non Fiction is just superb - it really gets to the center of the pain, watching the person you love the most suffer and harm themselves. It invites conversations about female writers and what truth that are comfortably allowed to publish.
• 
  Dylan Kakoulli

  Wow.
  
  Even though I kinda knew where this was going, I still feel so powerlessly speechless by the end.
  
  At once viscerally claustrophobic -yet compulsively (almost unashamedly) urgent in its portrayal. Myerson’s latest novel -for it is a novel (though with a nod to the “auto fiction” at times it seems) “Nonfiction”, is such a powerfully intimate, and gut wrenchingly brutal exploration of; writing, motherhood, love, loss, betrayal and addiction, that I’ve read in a LOOOOOOONG old time.
  
  Complexly challenging in its conviction, “Nonfiction” really does push the boundaries of (or at least our understanding of) a mother’s (aka “unconditional”) love, as well as the individual’s (in this case artists) need to be seen and heard.
  
  As I said, (somewhat) speechless (or more accurately, wordless?)
  
  4.5/5 stars - I’m still undecided
  
  PS - thanks again to the publishers for sending me a copy!
  
  
  https://www.instagram.com/dylankakoulli/
• 
  Ophelia

  This was brilliantly written. Tragic tale of mother daughter relationships through generations. It was horrific and brutal at times and not an easy or light read. Very smart but not sure I would recommend as it is so sad. Definitely one for Rachel Cusk fans.
• 
  Carey Calvert

  Nonfiction is the best book I’ve read about the craft of writing. Julie Myerson weaves a thriller “Can a mother save her wayward daughter from self-destruction?” into an acknowledgment that splashes across the page; that perhaps all art comes from life.
  
  “… because where else would it come from?”
  
  On her publisher’s page, Myerson speaks of her latest novel’s release:
  
  “Although it’s a work of fiction, it is the most personal book I’ve written or know or believe about writing.”
  
  It helps that our unnamed narrator is a novelist, but Myerson’s splendid narrative makes you forget with compact and subtle prose and an undiluted experience that touches on family, love, friendship, and loss.
  
  Who would’ve thought that love could be so lonely?
  
  But is our narrator telling the truth?
  
  Nonfiction is straightforward: A middle-aged couple deals with the tragedy of their daughter’s drug addiction.
  
  This premise is threaded with a love affair, but Nonfiction never falls into the crevasse of didacticism, nor does it ever feel the need to pull itself out of the morass.
  
  It is a quiet book. One that unfolds without the pretense of unfolding. Oftentimes, I didn’t know what hit me. Myerson’s flashbacks slice your soul.
  
  “There’s a night – I think this is the middle of June – when we lock you in the house.”
  
  This is the first sentence of the novel, and although it is unsettling, Myerson never lets you fear the unknown. In fact, it is a confession of sorts. One that is as beautifully written as it is intricate and raw.
  
  Myerson herself thinks it is a book about writing.
  
  Yes, the themes of motherhood and addiction are pervasive, and Myerson makes the damage palpable, but that never feels the point of Nonfiction.
  
  The novelist takes on a client. A writer whose predilections are nominal yet familiar (as Myerson may even be talking to a former self), and it is in these interactions, the novel is exquisite.
  
  In her young charge’s draft, “not one conversation contains a single moment of controversy or tension and the one time something bad seems to be about to happen, someone else conveniently steps in and sorts it out.”
  
  They talk for a while about this crucial lack of jeopardy, and our narrator doesn’t know what it’s all for, to which her client balks: “Does it need to be “for” anything?”
  
  Myerson’s beautiful and tragic Nonfiction gives the reader and the writer so many reasons to read on.
• 
  Tamsen

  Some lines I liked:
  
  "Later, though, it occurs to me that it's very simple: I don't know who I am without my most unforgiving and self-lacerating thoughts."
  
  "He has even, I would say, so completely ceased to exist for me that it does not seem physically possible that he should be standing here - "
  
  "For a long time afterwards, I find myself checking the weather app on my phone to see how cold or wet or windy it is in the place where she lies. Even now I do it. Today, for instance, they say there is a chance of snow there. I think of her lying down there all alone under that freezing earth and my heart breaks."
  
  "There seems to be no question at all about it in their eyes. It does not seem for one moment to have crossed either of their minds to think that I might be a very bad mother indeed - neglectful, selfish, frightened, and chaotic, that I might have spent years putting my own appetite and interests and emotions first - t hat I might even possible be to blame for this appalling and tragic mess you are in."
• 
  Em H.

  Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for an e-arc of this book!
  
  Dnf'ing at 40%.
  
  Unfortunately, I'm just not feeling this book right now. While I love lit-fic novels exploring concepts of motherhood, grief, etc, this feels like a book I've read before. The narrator isn't particularly compelling and much of the rumination in the first 40% is similar to what I've read in the past. Not a fault of the book, it's just not aligning with me, personally.
  
  The review copy was also a bit difficult to read as there weren't breaks between sections so it was a bit confusing at times--unsure if it's the same in the physical copy.
• 
  Jesse Milian

  3.5 rounded up.
  
  What this book lacks is size it makes up in subject matter, it’s short but heavy.
  
  The long chapters and jumpy timeline make it hard to be a real “page turner”. And I would be lying if there were parts of it that I found confusing… I’m still trying to work out the last 20 pages or so as to what was “real” and what wasn’t. But maybe that was the point?
  
  Overall, if you’re a fan of lit fic, I would recommend (if for no other reason than I need someone to answer some of my questions).
• 
  LeastTorque

  Incredible, devastating. Going meta doesn’t always work for me, but in this case, especially knowing at least one fact of the author’s life, it feels like it couldn’t have been written any other way. The baring of soul here is astounding.
  
  I read this alongside Gun Love, which also dealt with a mother-daughter but is about gun violence rather than addiction. Nonfiction has the power that Gun Love failed to attain, at least for me.