Ms. Hen reviews Hunger Makes Me a Modern Girl

Hunger Makes Me a Modern Girl

Carrie Brownstein

Riverhead Books

2015

Ms. Hen decided to read this book because it was hanging around in her hen-sister’s room, and she is currently running out of books to read. She thought if she read this right after Patti Smith’s book, they would compliment each other, since both were both written by musicians. Ms. Hen came to the conclusion that these books have nothing in common, and Patti and Carrie are starkly different people. That is, Carrie seems like a much more normal, down to earth person, the type that Ms. Hen would actually be able to hang out with if she met.

This novel is about Ms. Brownstein’s life, her passion for music, and her time in Sleater-Kinney. Ms. Hen realized while reading this that she and Ms. Brownstein are almost the same age, and the music and events occurred during the same time period as Ms. Hen's childhood. She remembers the same music and pop culture happenings. It’s eerie for Ms. Hen to read about someone’s youth who lived on the other side of the country, who liked the same music at the same time. Ms. Hen’s and her lives were not exactly the same, but she thinks it’s interesting that there are people in this country, and maybe all over the world, who have the same pop culture background.

But this is mostly a book about being in a rock band, and the joy and hardship it brings. Everyone has heard about how difficult it is to be on the road, especially if your biggest band is not the biggest band, but it can cause physical pain and illness like it did to Carrie. She is a self-professed hypochondriac, but she did get sick a lot on tour. They had fun making music, but it took a lot of sacrifice.

Ms. Hen has to admit that she was never a Sleater-Kinney fan. She is, however, a fan of PORTLANDIA, the TV show that Ms. Brownstein created and appears in that takes place in Portland Oregon, which is about how ridiculous Portland is, and how extremely liberal and so called “alternative” it is, if that word is still used. Ms. Hen decided to listen to some Sleater-Kinney while she was reading this book, and she likes select songs, but she thinks some of the music is mostly screaming, but with a catchy pop beat, which is essentially what punk rock strives to be.

(Ms. Hen believes that in one of her alternate lives she was in a rock band, and was moderately successful. She imagines that her life would have been something like the one in this book, but with more of a Boston flavor.)

Even though Ms. Hen confesses that she was never a Sleater-Kinney fan, she is a fan of Ms. Brownstein’s writing. This book is extremely well written, gripping and entertaining. Ms. Hen is a fan of anyone who can write and has a good story to tell, and this book succeeds in both those respects.