Sounds Like Titanic
A Memoir
by Jessica Chiccehitto Hindman
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Pub Date Feb 12 2019 | Archive Date Jan 31 2019
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Description
A young woman leaves Appalachia for life as a classical musician—or so she thinks.
When aspiring violinist Jessica Chiccehitto Hindman lands a job with a professional ensemble in New York City, she imagines she has achieved her lifelong dream. But the ensemble proves to be a sham. When the group “performs,” the microphones are never on. Instead, the music blares from a CD. The mastermind behind this scheme is a peculiar and mysterious figure known as The Composer, who is gaslighting his audiences with music that sounds suspiciously like the Titanic movie soundtrack.
On tour with his chaotic ensemble, Hindman spirals into crises of identity and disillusionment as she “plays” for audiences genuinely moved by the performance, unable to differentiate real from fake. Sounds Like Titanic is a surreal, often hilarious coming-of-age story. Hindman writes with precise, candid prose and sharp insight into ambition and gender, especially when it comes to the difficulties young women face in a world that views them as silly, shallow, and stupid. As the story swells to a crescendo, it gives voice to the anxieties and illusions of a generation of women, and reveals the failed promises of a nation that takes comfort in false realities.
About the Author: Jessica Chiccehitto Hindman has "performed" on PBS, QVC, and at concert halls worldwide. Her writing has appeared in the New York Times Magazine, Lenny Letter, Brevity, and Hippocampus. She holds a BA in Middle Eastern studies and an MFA in creative nonfiction writing from Columbia University, and a PhD in English from the University of North Texas. She teaches creative writing at Northern Kentucky University and lives in Newport, Kentucky.
A Note From the Publisher
LibraryReads votes due by 1/1/19 and IndieNext votes due by 12/3/18.
Advance Praise
"As the author connects the dots among American gullibility over fake weapons of mass destruction, chain restaurants offering faux authenticity, and her own psychological breakdown, the emotional honesty of her narrative permits no doubt.... Like the most discerning members of the audiences for whom Hindman played, readers may be left wondering what's really real—and how it matters. A tricky, unnerving, consistently fascinating memoir." - Kirkus Reviews, starred review
“It’s difficult to write a funny, angry book. It’s even harder to write a merciless, empathetic book. But here comes Jessica Hindman, doing the impossible with a funny, angry, merciless, empathetic book that’s not only a hugely entertaining memoir, but an insightful meditation on a time in our nation’s recent history whose strange and ominous influence grows more apparent by the day.” - Tom Bissell, co-author of The Disaster Artist and author of Apostle
“Deliciously bizarre and utterly American. It's a Coen Brothers movie come to life—Ruby Tuesdays, QVC, and one woman working for years as a fake violinist for classical music's version of Thomas Kinkade. I couldn't put it down.” - Caitlin Doughty, bestselling author of From Here to Eternity and Smoke Gets in Your Eyes
Available Editions
| EDITION | Other Format |
| ISBN | 9780393651645 |
| PRICE | $25.95 (USD) |
| PAGES | 256 |
Links
Featured Reviews
Bookseller 452447
Hilarious. Honest, engaging, singular. Narrated (rather knowingly) in second-person present tense, which I imagine will put some people off. However, the voice and tone are so vibrant and funny as to make the unusual narrative style easy to follow. Similar to early Sedaris or J. D. Daniels (though with more politics and theory) - a well sequenced memoir of travels through high and low American society. An excellent examination of class, cultural homogeneity, and gender in the US.
Adam D, Librarian
A really cool story overall. Along with a beautiful and intriguing cover. I'll be recommending this one for sure.
Librarian 356790
I'm going to cut to the chase and just come out and say that this is one of my favorite books that I have read in a long time and I want every woman I know to read it and we will all be in one huge book club.
On its surface, it is a memoir of a woman who spends a few years of her young adulthood faking it as a professional violinist. The Composer, a man who is never named specifically, has written simplistic orchestral music that sounds suspiciously like the Titanic theme song, and pays semi-professional musicians to fake-play along to a soundtrack. The crowd never knows the difference, and the author becomes an accomplished violinist who really isn't that great.
Yet, there are nuanced layers to the story that make it rich and engrossing:
- America's response to 9/11: Ms. Hindman has a world-class education in Middle Eastern studies, but no one is interested in hiring her to cover the new American war in the Middle East or hearing her explain the complexities of what is going on there; they would rather hear her pretend to play violin.
- the epic chip on the author's shoulder from growing up in Appalachia and finding herself living among the children of the 1% in New York City. She feels that she must (literally) work herself to death to validate her existence.
- her discussions on what she refers to as "life in the body" -- the struggle every woman has to come to terms with her body and the space it inhabits.
I'm calling this is as my favorite book of 2018.
Paula L, Reviewer
When Jessica Chiccehitto Hindman enters Columbia University, after leaving her remote home town in the Appalachian mountains, she quickly realizes that she is not a good enough violinist to make a living as a musician. She does, however, play well enough to play a muted violin while a recording is piped out over speakers and it pays enough to support her and her education. This would make an extremely unbelievable fiction, but is a cunning and charming memoir. Read this to laugh at the absurdity and hypocrisy, then admire the ways that the author expands her story to profile what happens to so many other women as they struggle towards adulthood. Highly recommended.
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