My conversation with Jon-Jon Goulian, author of The Man in the Gray Flannel Skirt, is up on The Rumpus now. I was pleasantly surprised by this book - and by Jon-Jon. The pre-release hype turned me off. But just about as soon as I opened the book, I was sold.
The book is framed as a reply to a postcard Goulian sent, as a young boy, to his grown-up self basically asking, “What’s up? What became of you?” A postal carrier in the small Vermont town where Goulian’s family has a weekend home dutifully delivered the letter 30 years later, as instructed.
I loved everything about this memoir. Goulian holds nothing back; in his willingness to reveal himself as vain, shallow, neurotic and insecure, he emerges as a sympathetic, lovable soul. And the incredibly compassionate way he tells hard truths about his parents and grandparents - I need to learn how to do that.
