Vietnam Plays: Streamers & The Orphan, Vol. 2 Book

Love the way this begins: "Stories seem to fly to me and stick. They are always out there, coming in. We exist in a fabric of personal stories. All culture, all civilization is an artful web, a human puzzle, a colorful quilt patched together to lay over raw indifferent nature. So I never wonder whether, if a tree falls in the forest, will anyone hear it. Rather, who will tell about it?"

I hadn't heard of Spalding Gray before Hannah lent me this book, but upon finishing the last pages I pressed on some youtube links and heard Spalding personally narrate "Terrors of Pleasure" (about the house he bought which had no foundation, and about how awkward his gigs as an actor in Hollywood were going, etc). And yeah, I get it: there's something remarkable about re-telling one's own stories with a funny and creative take.

I really enjoyed "Sex and death to the age 14" so was in for a bit of a disappointment because some of the following chapters weren't as much fun (in fact some of them were a little dull at times). Still, the last chapter pulled through again and I was reminded of the 14 year-old boy in the first chapter, which in turn got me curious to go check out the youtube links and hear more from the man. Comedy is best when it is clever and original, and this is.