Match BookWhat Doesn't Kill You Makes You Blacker: A Memoir in Essays
Damon Young
2019 · 9 pages · Memoir
How it reads
What Doesn't Kill You Makes You Blacker: A Memoir in Essays is memoir (personal essay memoir, specifically), and its dominant mood is funny. The humour is the point, not garnish. The pace is moderate — neither a page-turner nor a slow burn — so it holds up whether you read it in long sittings or short ones.
It's set in a big city setting, in the present day, told in the first person by a single narrator. Its central concerns are identity, class and society and family. In weight it sits in the middle: substantial without being heavy going.
It stands alone, so there's nothing else you need to read first or after. The ending is bittersweet: it resolves, but at a price. At 9 pages it's a single-sitting book. It's moderately known: read by plenty of people, but not a household name.
Pick it up if…
- you're in the mood for something funny
- you want a complete story in one book
- you're drawn to stories about identity
Maybe not if…
- you need something melancholy, dark or tense
All 15 dimensions
- Genre
- memoir
- Author gender
- male
- Author experience
- early career
- Setting: place
- big city
- Setting: time
- contemporary
- Mood / feeling
- funny
- Pace
- moderate
- Tone / weight
- balanced
- Length
- short
- Narrative style
- first person, one narrator
- Publication era
- recent
- Popularity
- moderately known
- Series vs standalone
- standalone
- Ending style
- bittersweet
What these mean: the 15 dimensions of a book.
Books with a similar reading
The closest books in Match Book's catalogue across the same dimensions, and what they share.
- Magical Thinking: True StoriesAugusten BurroughsShares: memoir, funny mood, balanced tone, personal essay memoir
- Bearded LadyMara AltmanShares: memoir, funny mood, balanced tone, moderate pace
This Will Only Hurt a LittleBusy PhilippsShares: memoir, funny mood, balanced tone, moderate pace- Broken (In the Best Possible Way)Jenny LawsonShares: memoir, funny mood, balanced tone, moderate pace
- Can You Ever Forgive Me?: Memoirs of a Literary ForgerLee IsraelShares: memoir, funny mood, balanced tone, bittersweet ending
- Why I'm Like This: True StoriesCynthia KaplanShares: memoir, funny mood, moderate pace, set in big city
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