Yourgrau, Barry. Mess: One Man's Struggle to Clean Up His House and His Act. New York: Norton. 2015. Print.
First Sentences:
Description:
Fred
This is how it begins.With grocery bags.
Description:
Author Barry Yourgrau is a real-life messy person. How messy? Well, because of his tendency to early-stage hoarding, he has not let his girlfriend inside his apartment for over two years. She's not even allowed a glimpse inside. And when he denies her entrance one rainy day, she's finally had it and ends their relationship until he cleans up his apartment and his life.
He decides to document his cleaning process, both of his residence and life in general, resulting in the funny, insightful Mess: One Man's Struggle to Clean Up His House and His Act.
Where to begin sorting and discarding? With his tourist maps and vacation brochures? How about his cafe napkins collection? Maybe just clean off the dusty blankets and miscellaneous items piled on top of the grand piano that hasn't been seen much less played in years? Or maybe just tackle piles of empty boxes (hard to find great boxes when you need them) and plastic grocery bags.
Pity his poor girlfriend "Cosima" (he changes her name periodically throughout the book as she reads his book notes and insists on being referred to by a name more fitting to her mood, going by "Medea," "Sybil," and "Prunella" at various points in the narrative). Her boyfriend is both a procrastinator of cleaning tasks and am easily-distracted researcher. Whenever he gets into the mood to clean, his attention drifts to histories of other hoarders like the Collyer brothers who died buried under their piles of hoarded stuff. Or looks up writings from current psychologists in the National Association of Professional Organizers who specialize in researching and helping others with mess management.
Anything to put off cleaning up his clutter. He meets with the no-nonsense Dave the Declutterer. He talks with acquaintances who share his Obsessive–Compulsive Personality Disorder, such as the woman who cannot discard any item of clothing she has ever owned; the film critic who has kept every email he'd ever received; the woman who held onto every envelope she ever received for possible re-use; and the wife who paid $3,000 per month to store her husband's memorabilia dating from his childhood. For Yourgrau, these people prove he himself is not so unique or even unusual. Maybe not, but he admits it did take a significant amount of time for him to simply select which notebook from his collection to use for each interview.
But Yourgrau also discovers buried in his mess some items he wishes to avoid. Books from his domineering father; his sick mother's glass bell used to summon help; remnants from his own life and relationships that, like memories, are difficult to face and impossible to discard.
I loved reading of his comical struggles with organization and procrastination, his admonitions to really get to work, his Clutters Anonymous meetings with other hoarders, and his strained relationship with Cosima/Medea/Sybil/Prunella.
He decides to document his cleaning process, both of his residence and life in general, resulting in the funny, insightful Mess: One Man's Struggle to Clean Up His House and His Act.
Where to begin sorting and discarding? With his tourist maps and vacation brochures? How about his cafe napkins collection? Maybe just clean off the dusty blankets and miscellaneous items piled on top of the grand piano that hasn't been seen much less played in years? Or maybe just tackle piles of empty boxes (hard to find great boxes when you need them) and plastic grocery bags.
Pity his poor girlfriend "Cosima" (he changes her name periodically throughout the book as she reads his book notes and insists on being referred to by a name more fitting to her mood, going by "Medea," "Sybil," and "Prunella" at various points in the narrative). Her boyfriend is both a procrastinator of cleaning tasks and am easily-distracted researcher. Whenever he gets into the mood to clean, his attention drifts to histories of other hoarders like the Collyer brothers who died buried under their piles of hoarded stuff. Or looks up writings from current psychologists in the National Association of Professional Organizers who specialize in researching and helping others with mess management.
Anything to put off cleaning up his clutter. He meets with the no-nonsense Dave the Declutterer. He talks with acquaintances who share his Obsessive–Compulsive Personality Disorder, such as the woman who cannot discard any item of clothing she has ever owned; the film critic who has kept every email he'd ever received; the woman who held onto every envelope she ever received for possible re-use; and the wife who paid $3,000 per month to store her husband's memorabilia dating from his childhood. For Yourgrau, these people prove he himself is not so unique or even unusual. Maybe not, but he admits it did take a significant amount of time for him to simply select which notebook from his collection to use for each interview.
But Yourgrau also discovers buried in his mess some items he wishes to avoid. Books from his domineering father; his sick mother's glass bell used to summon help; remnants from his own life and relationships that, like memories, are difficult to face and impossible to discard.
I loved reading of his comical struggles with organization and procrastination, his admonitions to really get to work, his Clutters Anonymous meetings with other hoarders, and his strained relationship with Cosima/Medea/Sybil/Prunella.
The familiar loop was taking hold: some kind of work leading to rising agitation, leading to email-checking and online diddling, which led to their own agitation, from which I turned back to work, which kicked off the look again. It all blended into an intense, interknit, exhausting ordeal.Will he finally straighten out his life/apartment? Will he get back into good graces with Cosima? And how will he ever, as part of his cleaning bargain, prepare a dinner for Cosima and her mother in his apartment when his kitchen, cupboards, stove, and fridge haven't been used in years? You will simply have to read it to find out - and believe me it is a very unexpected conclusion to his pursuits. .
Happy reading.
Fred
www.firstsentencereader.blogspot.com
If this book interests you, be sure to check out:
Moore, Liz. Heft
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If this book interests you, be sure to check out:
Moore, Liz. Heft
A "colossally fat" Arthur Opp, who has not left (or cleaned) his home in many years, is contacted out of the blue by a former love. To make himself suitable, he hires a cleaning company whose young representative strikes up a friendship with Arthur as they go through his photographs and other possessions, unraveling his history as they go. (previously reviewed here)
