Rachel Reviews: A Paper Orchestra by Michael Jamin

Michael Jamin's collection of personal essays is a tour of his life in many ways, which has elements of memoir in its self-examination but is also full of humour throughout. In some ways, it reads like a performance so I wasn't surprised when I got to the end and discovered that Jamin is actually doing a talkback to coincide with this book: my impression was apt. As someone whose occupation is screenwriter, it perhaps is not surprising that there is awareness of theatricality present.

When I started reading, I knew that I was going to enjoy it because of Jamin's writing style. His voice is clear and, immediately in my mind, from the flow and the ideas and the tone, I decided that it would be a four star read. You will see however that I have given it five stars and this is because something shifted as I read it. I felt like the early chapters were sometimes a little glib, maybe more self-conscious and not in a way that felt sincere and so, they made me feel a little uncomfortable. I could probably put my finger on it more clearly if I revisited those chapters but it is of no real matter. Because from "The Ghoul" on, a story about a neighbour who dies who the author has never really known, my reading of the book became warmer. I devoured Jamin's book from this point onwards.

The book has been structured into essays and each essay covers an incident in the author's life. They have interesting and funny titles, filled with word play like "A Plague Upon Your House", about the pandemic and "Escape from Kelly Jelly Belly" which you can find out about for yourself, and Jamin's style is filled with jokes and lines that will make you laugh throughout. It is really fun to read.

However, it's not all about puns and wit; there is a lot of looking back into childhood, adolescence and young adulthood here as well as introspection and self-examination in adulthood. Jamin holds himself and others up for scrutiny and he admits himself, that some of the chapters are apologies for things that he has done, although he makes no apology for writing about them, merely stating that we all act horribly sometimes, which is very true.

I liked the chapters where he wrote about his daughters. As a parent, he highlights the vulnerability that all parents feel when it comes to their children; we want to protect and shield them as best we can as they are vulnerable in our eyes but admitting this is not always possible, and only serves to emphasise our own vulnerability as fallible people with limited powers.

He also discusses the growing apart, the inevitable time where you, as a parent, are no longer the centre of your child's world and they have their own circle of people who are infinitely more important than you on a day-to-day basis. I am conscious of the fact that this is on the horizon for me and I am dreading it. And yet, like Michael, I know it will happen, is happening but what can you do except make the most of the now?

I rarely laugh out loud at a book but this one definitely tickled me.

Rachel Rating: 5/5 stars! Fanfare please!

Parts of this book review were first published on Reedsy Discovery where I was privileged to read it as an ARC. The link to that review is here.

Thanks for stopping by. If you read this, please leave a comment as I do like to interact with my readers!