My Meteorite

Or, Without the Random There Can Be No New Thing

By: Harry Dodge

Narrated by: Harry Dodge

Length: 9 hrs and 27 mins

Publisher's summary

A New York Times Book Review Editors' Choice

One of LitHub's Most Anticipated Books of 2020

An expansive, radiant, and genre-defying investigation into bonding - and how we are shaped by forces we cannot fully know

Is love a force akin to gravity? A kind of invisible fabric which enables communications through space and time? Artist Harry Dodge finds himself contemplating such questions as his father declines from dementia and he rekindles a bewildering but powerful relationship with his birth mother. A meteorite Dodge orders on eBay becomes a mysterious catalyst for a reckoning with the vital forces of matter, the nature of consciousness, and the bafflements of belonging.

Structured around a series of formative, formidable coincidences in Dodge’s life, My Meteorite journeys with stylistic bravura from Barthes to Blade Runner, from punk to Pale Fire. It is a wild, incandescent book that creates a literary universe of its own. Blending the personal and the philosophical, the raw and the surreal, the transgressive and the heartbreaking, Harry Dodge revitalizes our world, illuminating the magic just under the surface of daily life.

©2020 Harry Dodge (P)2020 Penguin Audio

Critic reviews

"Dodge has offered a new, luminous angle on autobiography that not only traces where the body has been - but also what it loves, how it thinks and feels within the potent intellectual and physical detritus of its lived world. Reading this book is like being bathed in the bright, gritty sear of a comet's tail. But the mark it leaves is stunningly terrestrial: a thumbprint of a mind on paper - singular in erudition, hurtfully wonder-struck, and true." (Ocean Vuong)

"Harry Dodge's voice and vision are singular, but his genius is for revealing how each of us is plural. This is a beautiful record of his loves and deaths and ways of making, but even its most intimate moments open out, become portals to other possible worlds. No genre can hold this book. It is a work of tender force, prying open every category. My Meteorite is breathtaking - or breathgiving, because the whole thing oxygenates discourse, makes me feel alive." (Ben Lerner, poet, novelist, essayist, and critic)

"My Meteorite holds you in its thrall like a brilliant friend - so vulnerable, hot, funny, and casually weird that you don't notice the profundity until you're already walloped by it. Dodge juxtaposes the tenderest of human details with hungry, brain-splitting inquiries into the very premise of life, and these shifts in scale are incredibly moving and provocative. Don't forget to notice that Dodge is a captivating and masterful writer; that's how he pulls this whole thing off." (Miranda July, film director)

gentle . whirling . and cosmic

this book was a gentle. whirling and cosmic read/listen. it made me feel a range of emotions: happy, sad, confused and certain. the book made me think about them all...the people I love, the plants I eat and the machines I work with.

a thanks to the cosmos for putting my meteorite in my hands and mind.

Absolutely ,life ,love ,heartfelt

I listened until the very last word. Recommended to me by my Artist son. I was from the start . The first few chapters I found myself pulled in by the narrators voice and rhythm of speech.
Because of that I stopped to find out his story. Gladly I read about this man but only his life in pictures I found he's who tells his own story. But just a few, enough to drive my attention back to the audio book.
Thank you for this, I told my son who then told me Harry was one of his favorite professors
@Cal. Arts in Valencia

Beautiful, gentle, intertwined

Such a beautiful book. So precise yet unconfined. I found the writing and thoughts to be very relatable. Kept me in reverie.

Incredible

This is the kind of book I dream about coming across. The magic of existence is captured so beautifully by Harry Dodge I didn’t want it to ever end.

MIND BLOWN, EMOTIONS IN TACT

I loved Harry Dodge's My Meteorite. The author's own presentation of the book--his delivery-- took me on an unexpected love ride. In its gentle conclusion I feel like I'm composing myself, forced to flatten the wrinkles and straighten my tie before returning to the office. What just happened? It's love and sex. Harry's voice. Cadence. Soto voce incantations. sadness. joy. whispers all just for me. in my earbuds. If I don't wash them off will he stay? I finished the book weeks ago and felt incapable of expressing my adoration here. Can he see this? Can he hear me hearing him? This has been the most satisfying book to hear, ever. I'm at the top tier on audible in our gamificationed world. This work struck deep as it reminded me that our own unchartered journeys are worthy of detailed recollection even though celebrations after the fact can never be as real as when anything happens the first time. My roots are shaken. Are shaking. His mind is not untethered but is designed so expertly to invite you to think so. fly. be free. We all need a meteorite or something like it. Harry's not here to hold your hand but he'll be sure to let you if you wish it to be. Thank you Harry. Your human beingness inspires me. Even to this moment. LISTEN TO THIS BOOK. HEAR HARRY.

Meander becomes a Chrystal

touches the space between community and introversion, conversation and writing. Temporal and spatial leaps bound by love.
Great reading by Dodge. Will buy the physical book at an independent bookstore.

The language and sculpting of phrases, absurdly resonant & relatable themes

I loved this book. And I loved hearing the author read it. My daughter, who’s in her senior year at NYU recommended it to me. She loved it too. She discovered it after reading The Argonauts. I think that’ll be next for me.
As I listened to the book, I kept texting my daughter phrases that reminded me of us in one way or another.
A day or two after I’d finished it I told my daughter that I might read it again, as I was sure there’d been segments I’d missed. Honestly there’s just too much that I connected with and related to to go into more detail here.

Just read it ok? Seriously. It’s one of the ones you’ll be sad to finish.

Speaking of which, a few hours after I’d finished the book, my daughter called me on FaceTime & told me she’d like me to start referring to her using the pronouns they/them.
I had anticipated this, which I told them, as they’d referred to themselves that way at a recent thesis presentation they’d invited me to.
They smiled widely and we smiled at each other for a few lovely seconds and continued our conversation.
It felt kind of magical to read the same book as my (almost grown up) kid, especially when they’d recommended it to me. And it prompted a lot of self reflection & led to a meaningful discussion that I imagine will continue to unfold in upcoming days, weeks and months.

To the author: Please write more books. Thank you in advance.

A seed in the wind.

Heard Harry Dodge on Bookworm podcast and bought the book. It was a perfect thing.

Irritable transmasc rants / research rabbit holes abound in this messy memoir.

Damn!
Dodge is obviously one of the brilliant genius thinkers researchers, ideators of our time!
He also seems like someone who'd be insufferable to have as a friend.
As a gender non-conforming person, I loved this book.
As a reader, I found it pretty exhausting.
The best parts are the writings on medical ethics, consent, AI, and embarrassing art. I'm glad, grateful, relieved someone so steeped in the humanities is thinking about these things. But I wish he'd let up a bit from time to time.
A good companion piece to Patricia Lockwood's latest.