On Episode 62 of The Martin Lastrapes Show Podcast Hour, I enjoyed an amazing conversation with critically acclaimed writer—and my mentor—James Brown, author of The Los Angeles Diaries and This River.
During PART 1 of my conversation with Brown we covered a series of topics, including:
- Academic struggles in grade school
- The difference between an autobiography and a memoir
- The Los Angeles Diaries
- Brown's appearance on CNN
- The criminal activities of Brown's mother
- How the past effects drug and alcohol abuse
- Michael Chabon, Brown's college classmate
Of The Los Angeles Diaries, here's what Publishers Weekly had to say:
"Brown's genius compels readers to sympathize with him in every instance. Juxtaposed with the shimmery unreality of Hollywood, these essays bitterly explore real life, an existence careening between great promise and utter devastation. Brown's revelations have no smugness or self-congratulation; they reek of remorse and desire, passion and futility. Brown flays open his own tortured skin looking for what blood beats beneath and why. The result is a grimly exquisite memoir that reads like a noir novel but grips unrelentingly like the hand of a homeless drunk begging for help."