The Chelsea Whistle in Queereaders

Oct 23, 2008 Lewis rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

In her disturbing, funny, and often lyrical memoir, Tea effectively captures the ugliness and grit of our shared hometown (two writers from Chelsea, Massachusetts—it’s a miracle!). I’m not sure if an outsider would have the same reaction, but I could see every detail clearly as her prose triggered buried memories of places and a way of life I’ve gladly left behind. The dominant emotion of the memoir is anger, and very understandably, given the backward culture of Chelsea. But then Tea completely ...more

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Sep 17, 2009 Amber rated it it was amazing

It's no small feat to look back on a shitty childhood with an unflinching gaze and manage to find the humor along with the pain. Michelle Tea negotiates the working class minefield of her girlhood with characteristic wit and sharp, sometimes heartbreaking, prose. In exploring the specifics of her Chelsea adolescence, she tells the universal story of what it is to be a girl galloping towards womanhood. ...more

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Apr 15, 2007 Kristi Marshae rated it it was ok

disappointing. i felt like the story was abruptly cut short just as it was getting a little more interesting. her descriptions of childhood are delightful, but it wasn't fulfilling. ...more

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