PositiveLambda LiteraryUnlike many examples of theory, which can be intellectually rigorous but narratively stagnant, Koestenbaum’s essays actively analyze and move like investigations, encouraging readers to follow along like Watson to Holmes. Although the writing can be wordy and indirect, the essays are engaging, and it becomes an adventure to follow Koestenbaum’s playful and occasionally raunchy train of thought ... The title Figure It Out can be understood in two ways. In one sense, it is what he is doing throughout the book, the ‘it’ often being why he thinks or feels a certain way. In another sense, it means shaping or constructing in order to expand from the center outwards. These two meanings overlap within the collection and provide just one example of Koestenbaum’s fluidity of language. Either way, it is a call to action to the readers to do the same.
Cameron Esposito
PositiveLambda LiteraryShe has a specific and engaging cadence [on stage], which once in your head, helps in how the book ‘sounds.’ This performance style did not always translate its full effect to the page. There are occasional moments where the narrtive was not moving forward because of the writing, but because of the compelling nature of Esposito’s story and her natural charisma exuding from the page. Additionally, the structure of the memoir is like a comedy album, where each track can stand by itself, and so the occasional use of framing devices take getting used to. These critiques aside, Esposito has more than succeeded at the dual tasks of telling the story of (most of) her life so far while also providing laugh-out-loud commentary alongside it. With it being a pleasantly raucous reminiscence, the moments of insight stand out. Some of these flashes of brilliance are strikingly funny ... Cameron has written a memoir that would have illuminated the world for her younger self and will hopefully do so for those \'weird\' kids like her.
Paul Lisicky
RaveLambda LiteraryLisicky writes in waves, as if to mirror the shore. Paragraphs that wash through you. Phrases that crash upon you. At first, it seems like bursts of prose with only a headline to collect thoughts and demarcate them into sections of each chapter. Only over time do you realize that you have been swept up. It’s a form of literary sprezzatura, one that is years in the making. It is a collection which keeps building upon itself; its heft is in the stories and small details it amasses. Because of this, it’s easy to get lost in this book. Knowing which long term relationship he was in (Hollis or Noah?), only helped to orient me so much. But I encourage letting yourself get lost, to letting feelings take over, on the first read. Then you can return to Town for the prose, both generous in detail and thoughtful in diction. Despite such a tight perimeter around Paul’s personal experience of Town, he avoids solipsism. Both Paul and the book are often asking where they situate in a larger picture ... To sum up the experience of reading Later with a metaphor, it would be like being held—vertically or horizontally, your choice. You feel the topography of someone, the smooth and coarse. You hear the thumping of their heart and you smell the scent of their body. You feel the comfort of their warmth and the pressure of their body against yours. It is the holding but also the eventual letting go.
