My Father's Guitar and Other Imaginary Things

A marvelous collection of essays. Some of them were very funny, some were illuminating, still others were quite moving. These rich and varied stories come together to form a sketch of a family, and show how deeply being part of a family can affect how we move through the world. Several of them made me laugh so hard that I had a difficult time reading. The whole idea of asking telemarketers for money, for instance, quite delighted me.

[I received a free copy of this book through LibraryThing Early Reviewers.]

I enjoyed this thoughtful collection of essays. The stories orbit the theme of ambiguity within the author's family -- the unreliability of memory, or how the shared stories that make up a family's identity evolve into fixed forms, bound only loosely to the unrecoverable facts of its history. The author returns frequently to his awkward relationship with his father, and the difficulty of learning to identify with the older relatives whom he learned to know as a child.

A surprisingly varied, thoughtful collection of personal essays in the vein of Calvin Trillin or Anna Quindlen. Joseph Skibell's humane intelligence guides his writing and turns even the briefest of stories into morsels to savor. This type of book isn't usually my preferred genre, but I thoroughly enjoyed tearing through these pieces.

After reading the first chapter of Joseph Skibell's My Father's Guitar and Other Imaginary Things, I admit, I almost put the book aside. I didn't understand what he was trying to convey--that is, I understood that he was talking about having inherited a guitar after his father's death, but how, when he picked it up, it wasn't what he was expecting. He started to think that his father had owned a much nicer instrument, but someone had switched it for an inferior one before he got there. Later Skibell realizes that nothing like that had happened; he was simply mistaken. An imaginary guitar had taken the place of the real one in his mind. After that chapter, I thought...okay. What is your point? Memory plays tricks on us all. But as I kept show more reading, I realized that he was talking about the many differences in what we perceive and what really is. His essays are commentaries on mystery and meaning. This is an enjoyable book that you can savor all at once, or dip into as your time allows, to laugh, empathize, and even cry. show less

A fun and sometimes quite thought-provoking read. Memory is a zephyr, and this collection of odd and often unsubstantiated recollections proves that. I've had similar experiences, where conversations I've had get denied later - "I never said any such thing!" and throw my world for a loop.

Some of the essays are very funny. Loved the one about turning the tables on telemarketers and the bizarre conversations that ensued.

My Father's Guitar is a wonderful book - let's start there. I loved it because it was well written, because it was so much fun to read, and because it was religious in the best kind of way. I am Catholic, and in a world increasingly devoid of religious markers, I enjoyed the presence of religion woven into the fabric of the stories, like it is just a part of ordinary life. I kept stopping to read passages to my husband as I went through the book."Absolute Elsewhere" was my absolute favorite.
Thanks, Joseph Skibell, and thanks library thing for opening this door to me!

A rare Karma disaster occurred in 1978 that reverberates to this day. Playing a clarinet badly somewhere in New York, as his most recent film Annie Hall went on to several Oscar wins, Woody Allen caused a “Neurotic Jewish Shtick” overdraft that will not be brought into balance until February 3, 2032. Sadly, Joseph Skibell’s collection of essays, My Father’s Guitar and Other Imaginary Things was bounced due to Woody’s uncovered debt.

However, Paul McCartney’s Phone Number caused me to laugh my ass off, and may be the funniest four paragraph essay I’ve ever read! Unless of course it’s five paragraphs. Then, never mind.