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    Congratulations, Who Are You Again?: A Memoir
    Congratulations, Who Are You Again?: A Memoir
    Congratulations, Who Are You Again?: A Memoir
    Audiobook8 hours

    Congratulations, Who Are You Again?: A Memoir

    Written by Harrison Scott Key

    Narrated by Josh Bloomberg

    4/5

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    About this audiobook

    This funny and wise new memoir from Harrison Scott Key, winner of the Thurber Prize for American Humor, will inspire laughter and hope for anyone who’s ever been possessed by a dream of what they want to be when they grow up.

    Little-known author Mark Twain once said that the two most important days in your life are the day you were born, and the day you find out why. He's talking about dreams here, the destiny that calls every living soul to some kind of greatness. What Mr. Twain doesn't say is: A dream is also a monster that wants to eat you. Nobody tells you this part of the American Dream — until now. In this new memoir, Congratulations Who Are You Again, readers join Harrison Scott Key on his outrageous journey to becoming a great American writer.

    As a young boy in Mississippi, Harrison possessed many special gifts, such as the ability to read and complete college applications. And yet, throughout young adulthood, he failed at many vocations, until one day, after drinking perhaps too many beers and dusting off his King James Bible, he stumbled across a passage about a lonely pelican, which burst into flame inside him. In a mad blaze of holy illumination, Harrison realized his dream: to set the world afire with the light inside him. He would write a funny book. This was his dream.

    With unforgettable wit and tenderness, Congratulations Who Are You Again is Harrison’s instructive tale of pursuing his destiny with relentless and often misguided devotion, transforming his life beyond all comprehension: He becomes a signer of autographs, a doer of interviews, a casher of checks that are ""worth more money than my father had ever imagined any of us might see, this side of a drug-related felony.""

    On this journey, Harrison finds that as he gains the world, he stands on the precipice of losing everything that means the most: his family, his mind, his soul. Hilarious, honest, and absolutely practical, Congratulations Who Are You Again is a no-holds-barred look at the life of every ambitious human creature, whether you want to write books or make music, start a business or start a revolution. This is an audiobook for the dreamers.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperAudio
    Release dateNov 6, 2018
    ISBN9780062867117
    Author

    Harrison Scott Key

    Harrison Scott Key is the author of The World’s Largest Man, winner of the Thurber Prize for American Humor, and Congratulations, Who Are You, Again?. Harrison’s TEDx talk about the challenges and rewards of creative ambition (“The Funny Thing About the American Dream”) is featured on TED.com, and his humor and nonfiction have appeared in The Best American Travel Writing, Oxford American, Outside, The New York Times, McSweeney’s Internet Tendency, Bitter Southerner, Town & Country, The Mockingbird, Salon, Reader’s Digest, Image, Southern Living, Gulf Coast, Creative Nonfiction, and elsewhere. He has spoken and performed on radio (Snap Judgement, WNYC Studios) and for hundreds of festivals, bookstores, conferences, variety shows, and universities. He lives in Savannah, Georgia.

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    Reviews for Congratulations, Who Are You Again?

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    • 5/5
      I love this author... this real and hilarious, honest and loving, colorful man. I listened to his book How to Stay Married...first, which is his latest book. I HIGHLY recommend it, and wish he would've recorded all of his audiobooks. It was so raw, so terrific.
      This book was great too, I love his gift for storytelling, his incredible vocab and his humor while being, dare I say again, REAL.
      Now onto read what was a main subject of this book, his 2015 The World's Largest Man- A Memoir.
      Harrison, I hope you see this review. You are an inspiration and bring me joy, hope and MUCH laugh out loud ( TRULY!) laughter. Thank you!
    • 5/5
      Radical Islamic jihadists, not my favorite subject. But, as deplorable as I find this subject matter, this is a page turner! Mr. Sander does an excellent job of creating characters you'll find compelling, and the story is intriguing as well. This a tale all too terrifying in that it seems wholly plausible, seeing this spread across the front page of the news doesn't stretch one's imagination.
    • 5/5
      The Brother – Stunning Suspense ThrillerJoakim Zander came to prominence with his knock out debut The Swimmer, which I thought was a stunning thriller and would take some beating, he has put that to be bed with ease. The Brother is the follow-up and is one of the best thrillers of the year, it will simply take your breath away and breathless at the end.Zander has once again come up with a plot that is contemporary, without preaching at the reader, that is absorbing, thrilling and keeps you in suspense throughout. This is not a typical Scandi Noir thriller, this really is an international outlook in this book, that takes you to dark places without being dark.Yasmine has promised she would always protect her little brother Fadi, but it is five years since she left Bergort, a suburb of Stockholm. Her new life in New York is not everything it seems but she is surviving, just, when she receives new that her brother has been killed out in Syria and she devastated. When she receives a message from her mother with a picture of Fadi, she is convinced he is still alive and she needs to get back to Stockholm and find him.Accepting help, while supposedly working for a big agency in New York she is able to get back to Stockholm and find Fadi. What she finds is her old suburb suffering nightly riots, and Bergort is literally burning. Not everybody is pleased to see her back, especially as she gets messages to stop the search and go back to America.What we get is a thriller where the story is narrated by both Yasmine and Fadi, as the picture builds so we can understand how things are and how they had come to pass. At the same time a different thread is built around Klara, a researcher based in London, but from Sweden, and her story intertwines with the books main narrative.What the reader gets is an explosive story, a story of loss, jihad, Government Spy Agencies, and the people caught in the middle. As the story heads to its conclusion you really are not sure how this will end, for all three main characters, you hope for the best but fear the worst. This is an ambitious thriller that really does deliver on all levels and its breadth is wonderful and entertaining. The characters are believable and well written, and once again the research that has gone in to the writing of this book is really fantastic.Read The Brother and the suspense will keep you breathless and entertained, a really stunning Swedish thriller.
    • 5/5
      Really well-done, and very timely story arc. Zander is a strong writer with a good message
    • 4/5
      If you ever write anything that you share with others, people will likely tell you that you should write a book or you should get whatever snippet they've read published. But people generally have no concept of what writing a book (never mind the quality), getting it to a publishable state, and then, miracle of miracles, getting it traditionally published actually takes. It's not easy. And it can take years. If it ever happens at all. Harrison Scott Key's humorous memoir Congratulations, Who Are You Again? details the long and complicated journey he took to being a published author and while his experience is his alone, it is also universal enough to serve as a cautionary tale for those who think that writing a book is their ticket to fame and riches. Writing is a calling, publishing is simply a happy (read not guaranteed) outcome for that calling.Key's first memoir, The World's Largest Man, focuses on his relationship with his father. It won The Thurber Prize for American Humor. So readers might be forgiven for thinking that Key had it all figured out as an author. This, his second memoir, shows just how hard he worked on that book to make it funny, to make it appear effortless, and even to get it down on the page in the first place. He knows that his first book has not only been published but has been successful by many measures as he's writing this one but he doesn't hesitate to pull back the curtain and really detail the grueling process, including harboring a long held dream that often felt out of reach or unrealistic, eleven years of writing around the other important things in his life (family, job, etc.), and the inside view of getting a book published including the marketing and touring, readings and interviews after the book comes out. Key is open and honest about his journey but also delightfully self-deprecating as he presents the highs and lows. He shares things about his personal process and about his private life, the highs and lows. He is a talented writer, truly able to make a reader laugh in places, often just as his numerous setbacks threaten to overwhelm and he balances both struggle and hope carefully. This is a testament to chasing a dream, nurturing it and cursing it but ultimately staying true to it. Key may not be a famous author, not immediately recognizable or a household name, but he's been successful at this difficult thing called writing for sure. Recommended for budding authors and those who are interested in an inside view of the publishing world from the author's perspective.
    • 4/5
      Have you ever dreamed about writing a book? Have you ever read a book and thought "I could write a better book than that!"? I have been such a dreamer; even tried a few beginnings of stories, novels, essays, what have you. But I never kept going, never really got the bug, the urgency to write. But Harrison Scott Key did. In a big way. He had to change his life, spend precious time away from his family, face some demons and write, write, write. This book, chronicles that eleven year journey from dreamy idea to publication and some notable recognition, namely, The Thurber Prize for American Humor. Luckily, he fills the book with the humor for which he was awarded along with more honest and sober observations about family life. Towards the end of the book, he visits his daughter's classroom on Career Day: "I told them what I came to tell them, which is that I am no hero. I have not discovered vaccines. I am not airlifting refugees from tyrannical governments here. All I am is a writer whose American dream came true, and to me, that is remarkable. It is more than remarkable. It is a wonder, a most happy miracle." Reading the book gets the reader to this happy miracle place, too.
    • 4/5
      I cannot overstate the importance of the humor in our lives, reading and otherwise. Sometimes one just desperately needs to pick up a funny book. Fortunstely, Harrison Scott Key agrees with me and has written a very humorous one, a glimpse into the life of a writer who finds himself on the cusp of being a recognized author. Not afraid to poke fun at himself, his dreams, his aspirations, his quest to have it all. As a child he loved to be the joker, loved to make people laugh, a role that often got him in trouble I school and will his parents, or others in authority. "On Saturday nights I listened to A Prairie Home Companion in my bedroom and tried to imitate Tom Keith's sound effects, while my mother stood at the locked door and prayed for me."Thought I was reading shout my husband who often finds himself and his jokes more amusing than do I. In fact I'm giving him this book to him next to read. But as we know life is not all humor, and in an honest manner the book also explores some lessons learned, little detours, a mine field. Ones pursuit of Fame and glory, no matter how amusing one is, always has a price, and sometimes it is more than one wants to pay. ARC from Harper and Library thing.
    • 4/5
      This was a very entertaining read by an author writing about his experience of becoming a published author. It had just the right balance of describing the struggles of being published and self deprecating humor. There were even some laugh out loud moments during the course of the book. The description of the journey was impressive and it was a very enjoyable read. Although I had not read his first book, this book made me want to read more by this author! Reader received a complimentary copy from LibraryThing early reviewers.
    • 4/5
      This book has it all from struggle to joy to laughs to even a few dictionary words. The story is very relatable and heartfelt. When things got too real or too prove a point, there would be some sarcasm or self-deprecation to lighten the mood...I know this device well. Since this is a review book, they say to check the final edition before quoting...well, I'm too forgetful and frankly lazy to do that. So, I'm going to paraphrase this sentence that is around the middle of pg 264 and when you read it, you can figure it out. "A work of cheese is a tasty sandwich and not everybody likes dairy."
    • 4/5
      I have never heard of this author so I was a little confused at first at his claims to fame. Once I realized that this was just part of the humor, it made more sense. This was mostly a funny memoir about Harrison Scott Key’s writing career. Sometimes the humor veered into the absurdly silly realm but overall it was a fun read. I received this book from the LibraryThing Early Reviewers program.
    • 5/5
      I had never heard of southern writer, Harrison Scott Key, and he would probably be the first to tell you he's not surprised. (And he kinda objects to being called a "southern writer" too, but, well - Georgia, Mississippi, Tennessee, [southern] Illinois - what can I say, Harrison?) Because this is a book about how most authors end up chasing their dreams cloaked in anonymity, even those who win prestigious literary awards. And Key knows this too, having won the "prestigious" Thurber Prize for American Humor for his first (and only other) book, THE WORLD'S LARGEST MAN. And no, I'd never heard of that prize-winning book either. But now I certainly want to, because, quite frankly, this new book of his with its chuckle-worthy title, CONGRATULATIONS, WHO ARE YOU AGAIN? simply cracked me up. And it kinda reminds you of Seinfeld's show "about nothing," except it's not about nothing. In this book, a sequel, I suppose you could call it, Key gives us the whole sad, screwed up, hilarious story of how he became an author - how he became almost famous. And it only took him about twenty years. From the age of 18 on, Key loved a good book, and he loved a good laugh too. In CONGRATULATIONS he has given us a very entertaining book and one simply loaded to the top with laughs. And in the meantime he got himself a pot load of degrees, up to and including a Ph.D. - and the crippling student loan debt that comes with those degrees. Along the way he also managed to get a beautiful wife (and he's not exaggerating - I looked him up, saw photos, and she is beautiful) and three daughters. Key also - after all those years of study, struggle, and various low-paying teaching jobs and better-paying admin jobs, - got himself a pretty lucrative book contract, especially considering it was his first book and he was an unknown writer.But it's the humor, the laughs - and I laughed a lot reading this book - that really make his story fun. Key is finally at peace with himself, and has no problem poking fun at himself and the "impossible dream" that being an author so often is. Consider these section headings, for example: "The Ass in the Chair" and "The Part Where We Roll Around Naked on All the Money" or "My Meteoric Rise from Obscurity to Slightly Less Obscurity" and you'll get the idea. While this isn't exactly a "how to" book, it does lay out, in all its ridiculousness, and many hard, lean years, just how "fame" finally came to this one particular writer. It even mentions how, once his book was finally published, he obsessively checked his Amazon ranking and the reader reviews, something most writers would be loathe to admit. And of how he and his wife dreamed of a better house, with multiple ceiling fans and many toilets. (They kept coming up - I'm still laughing.)But full disclosure. I'm a writer too - or a kind of a writer. Probably the way Snoopy is kind of a Beagle. So I laughed, and laughed and chuckled and guffawed. Been there - all except the book contract. I ended up publishing my own book, and I have managed to sell a few thousand books (even if it has taken me nearly fifteen years to do that, and I have to include all five of my books to come up with that modest figure). So yeah, I get it, Harrison. But you did "make it," whether you think so or not. And in writing this new book, you've made me want to read your other one. And THAT is something too. And you should also be proud too of your intact family. All those moves, all that scraping, all those bills, etc. And you've still got that beautiful family. Be proud of that. It's more important than any book you'll ever write.I know, I'm rambling. But I loved this book, man. It is Funny with a capital F. And moving here and there too - really. If I had to compare this to something, I'd say Billy Crystal's most recent memoir, STILL FOOLIN' 'EM. But then Billy was already famous - a celebrity. This guy's not, so book contracts don't come easy. But he GOT one! Bravo, Mr. Harrison Scott Key. Bravo!- Tim Bazzett, author of the memoir, BOOKLOVER
    • 1/5
      I know this book is supposed to be funny. I didn't think so and finally gave up after a hundred pages.
    • 3/5
      Harrison Scott Key had written one modestly successful book - a "funny memoir" about his racist father and their troubled relationship. For his sophomore book, he felt compelled to share the impact of following his lifetime dream and writing this first book which peaked in the mid-thousands on the Amazon list.It sounds like a weird premise, but the story is quite interesting and the author is genuinely funny. It's a bit sad that we probably won't care as much because Key is relatively unknown. It also feels like he may have been at a loss for a second book topic. I would read something else by him if the topic were more compelling. Perhaps there is a novel in him which he can bring to life with his offbeat humor.
    • 4/5
      I was initially a bit skeptical that the premise (a memoir about writing his first memoir) could sustain a whole book, but I liked The World's Largest Man so much that I gave this a chance, and I'm really glad I did. I think his writing is voice is growing more confident and relaxed than even his last book. He really did think a lot about what it was to dream, and expertly applied it to his own circumstance. I think "book people" will like this first and foremost, but like his last book, there's something for everyone.