Also a Poet

A Memoir

By: Ada Calhoun

Narrated by: Ada Calhoun, Lili Taylor, Josephine Brill

Length: 6 hrs and 33 mins

Publisher's summary

A staggering memoir from New York Times best-selling author Ada Calhoun tracing her fraught relationship with her father and their shared obsession with a great poet, featuring exclusive archival audio from literary and art world legends, living and dead.

When Ada Calhoun stumbled upon old cassette tapes of interviews her father, celebrated art critic Peter Schjeldahl, had conducted for his never-completed biography of poet Frank O’Hara, she set out to finish the book her father had started 40 years earlier. 

As a lifelong O’Hara fan who grew up amid his bohemian cohort in the East Village, Calhoun thought the project would be easy, even fun, but the deeper she dove, the more she had to face not just O’Hara’s past, but also her father’s and her own.

The result is a groundbreaking and kaleidoscopic memoir that weaves compelling literary history with a moving, honest, and tender story of a complicated father-daughter bond. Also a Poet explores what happens when we want to do better than our parents, yet fear what that might cost us; when we seek their approval, yet mistrust it.

In reckoning with her unique heritage, as well as providing new insights into the life of one of our most important poets, Calhoun offers a brave and hopeful meditation on parents and children, artistic ambition, and the complexities of what we leave behind. 

©2022 Ada Calhoun (P)2022 Audible Originals

Unique, Gripping

Ada succeeded in creating a unique piece of literature. All stories intertwined, holding one’s attention. This book was made to be listened to because of the recordings though I also have a hard-copy to read to fully understand the recordings.

Gonna teach this

I teach a nonfiction gen ed class. This is going in! So interesting and well done

Audible shines!

This is great book but it’s made even better by the audiobook format. The interviews which provide the structure of this book would not be same without the actual voices which we hear here. This book has opened so many directions for me - Frank O’Hara but also the bigger New York literary scene. Thank you!

one of the best audible listens of all time?

why would you read this when you can listen to Ada share her wonderful story and include the tapes and original recordings. I appreciate masterfully she threaded the various parts of this narrative together. Chapter 26 about her feelings about being a writer and never living up to her father reverberated (even though neither of my parents are writers, or even readers for that matter, I think so many of us can relate to all the what ifs of how we fantasize we could be better). What a special memoir that deserves to be celebrated!

Profound

Overall: if it spikes your attention, read it! Some parts became tedious as the depiction of bohemian New York boomers wasn’t particularly interesting to me. Towards the end, the book goes deeper into the complexity of a father- daughter relationship. It’s a profound and beautiful book.

4/5 stars for performance because I really had trouble understanding the audio of the original tapes used

It won me over!

This book won me over! I was interested in the poet O’Hara and in the inspiring Peter Schjeldal and ended up admiring the latter’s daughter and author of this book Ada more than the two combined. What an amazing book this is, and the audio version with all the tapes from the past is such a kick, congratulations Ada!!!

Merging vooices

Calhoun manages to combine her father's taped interviews with her own narrative of a complicated relationship with her father and his gang of New York celebrities. I loved it even though I couldn't hear some of the voices clearly .

The personal ness

I liked the development of the daughter/ father relationship. The ebbs and flow and respect were always apparent.

WoW!!! What a great book!!!

The last two books I listened to were so bad I exchanged them both. I was starting to give up hope. I started the book yesterday and kept cooking and washing dishes so it wouldn’t stop. What a great, moving, interesting FANTASTICALLY narrated book. I can’t recommend it highly enough. A memoir about a daughter a father and a common interest in a poet they once knew it’s exactly on key. I loved it!

So gorgeous and evocative

I chose to listen to the audiobook of “Also a Poet” out of convenience, but in the end I got so so so much out of choosing this medium, because the book relies heavily on recorded interviews, which are included. The effect is transportive and emotional, especially at the end. I don’t know how these recordings are reproduced in the printed text but I intend to find out: I loved this book so much I am buying a hardcover to keep on my shelf and read passages from again and again. I’ll probably listen to the audiobook again too!