The Chelsea Whistle: A Memoir

In her disturbing, funny, and often lyrical memoir, Tea effectively captures the ugliness and grit of our shared hometown (two writers from Chelsea, Massachusetts--it's a miracle!). I'm not sure if an outsider would have the same reaction, but I could see every detail clearly as her prose triggered buried memories of places and a way of life I've gladly left behind. The dominant emotion of the memoir is anger, and very understandably, given the backward culture of Chelsea. But then Tea completely startles with passages of poetic description--always maintaining her tone, skating that fine line to avoid falling into sentimentality. The tension between her tough persona and the beautifully expressed insights sustains the story, adding layers of intriguing complexity.

This book is sick with reality. I have to admit that I've not read any other of Ms. Tea's books so I had no expectations when I cracked it open. For someone like myself that grew up in a less-than-perfect world the book becomes a hilarious reflection - my most repressed embarrassments of youth were unearthed. The Chelsea Whistle has a wonderful balance of humor and darkness. The clarity of her words remind me of a female David Sedaris.

Michelle Tea's newest "The Chelsea Whistle" is filled with insight and explanation into the world of not-quite-poverty in the small town of Chelsea. It paints a bleak picture of how one girl experiences the bitter abuses,contradictions, secrets, and betrayals of her family and how despite the fact she manages to hope. "The Chelsea Whistle" is at times languid, dramatic and emotional and with the flip of a page abrasive, crude and blunt. It is written with a powerful voice that is honest and ultimately hopeful with just a dash of humor. Reminiscent of Judy Bloom, Tea writes herself like a composite of the best young heroines from the books of her youth. Although it's quiet ending has disappointed others, this reader finds it refreshing and true to life - which does not wrap up our hardships in neat little bundles ready for Hollywood screens or Tuesday night movies of the week. And this book is all the braver for it. Thank you, Miss Tea for telling it like it is.

What can I say about Michelle Tea and her writing that hasn't already been said in a positive light? She is the most honest, unafraid writer I have ever had the pleasure to read, and The Chelsea Whistle is a daring, heartbreaking, wonderful continuation of her life story. Her writing is beautiful, everflowing and wonderfully descriptive. She pulls no punches, neither to protect herself nor to protect or punish the people around her. The thing I love best about her writing is the picture she presents of a whole person; she trusts her audience to see truth in whatever way they find it. She is able to pull words from the dark places in her that are universal but never said--she makes the whole human experience come to life in the way that we all know it in our hearts, and she does not purport to be special in her own experience. I don't know what Publisher's Weekly read, but I did not find her writing choppy, and if the ending is disappointing, it is only that her character is not done growing, as perhaps the PW reviewer hopes for. Michelle's is a life in progress, and I cannot wait to read the next chapter.