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"(Storage Stories) reads like his songs have come alive and run amok. Its childlike illustrations and magical-realist style summon no less than Kurt Vonnegut carrying his belongings in a supermarket bag-for-life." --Andrew Collins, Word Magazine
Vignettes from the other side of fame Record Collector celebrates the permanence of the musical endeavour, rejoicing that, for each slab of vinyl whether legendary or half-forgotten there s someone who cherishes it. Jim Bob, once of Carter USM, is here to remind us that, despite that permanence of deed, fame and success are essentially fleeting things. The faded pop star narrating Jim s first novel has been there and is back again, finding himself in the dreaded position of having to find a proper job . Managing a self-storage company and enduring the sporadic, It s you, isn t it? and occasional, Didn t you used to be... he wanders through life with a sharp eye for the quirky story hiding behind his customers lives, while renting storage to a Michael Stipe (just not the Michael Stipe) and expounding his theories on where boy bands go when they reach self-awareness. There s something of Nick Hornby in the way that the author infuses his work with the 30- and 40-something pop culture references that makes this book such an engaging read. Really a collection of peculiar snapshots making up an overall narrative; there s a wistfulness of loss at its core but around its edges lies a celebration in the diversity of human nature. --Record Collector magazine
Part Roald Dahl, part Spike Milligan, part (actually, a lot) smutty schoolboy, which suggest that even in a dull world of dog-t**d strewn alleys you can dare to dream. If some TV company ever bought the rights and made a sitcom out of it, we'd have the natural successor to Spaced. --SFX magazine
The list of novels written by pop stars is not a very long one and the list of good novels written by pop stars very much shorter. So it is a pleasure to be able to say that Storage Stories comfortably makes it on to the latter list, being as it is, very good indeed. --Transmitter magazine
Vignettes from the other side of fame Record Collector celebrates the permanence of the musical endeavour, rejoicing that, for each slab of vinyl whether legendary or half-forgotten there s someone who cherishes it. Jim Bob, once of Carter USM, is here to remind us that, despite that permanence of deed, fame and success are essentially fleeting things. The faded pop star narrating Jim s first novel has been there and is back again, finding himself in the dreaded position of having to find a proper job . Managing a self-storage company and enduring the sporadic, It s you, isn t it? and occasional, Didn t you used to be... he wanders through life with a sharp eye for the quirky story hiding behind his customers lives, while renting storage to a Michael Stipe (just not the Michael Stipe) and expounding his theories on where boy bands go when they reach self-awareness. There s something of Nick Hornby in the way that the author infuses his work with the 30- and 40-something pop culture references that makes this book such an engaging read. Really a collection of peculiar snapshots making up an overall narrative; there s a wistfulness of loss at its core but around its edges lies a celebration in the diversity of human nature. --Record Collector magazine
Part Roald Dahl, part Spike Milligan, part (actually, a lot) smutty schoolboy, which suggest that even in a dull world of dog-t**d strewn alleys you can dare to dream. If some TV company ever bought the rights and made a sitcom out of it, we'd have the natural successor to Spaced. --SFX magazine
The list of novels written by pop stars is not a very long one and the list of good novels written by pop stars very much shorter. So it is a pleasure to be able to say that Storage Stories comfortably makes it on to the latter list, being as it is, very good indeed. --Transmitter magazine
Product Description
Where do old pop stars go to die? They go to work in self-storage, where they meet interesting people and make new friends. Friends who look like French movie star Juliette Binoche and others who look like weirdly bearded paedophiles and perform horrific surgery procedures on themselves. They meet interesting people like Michael Stipe - not the rock singer from Athens Georgia, just a coincidence - and other assorted bubblewrap fetishists, wooden statues that come to life at night to play arcade games and a homicidal computer named HAL. Storage Stories reads like the autobiography of a man discovering what it's like to be famous and yet no longer successful. A man who finds true friendship and love in the dusty world of a failing self-storage company. A man who is ether a fantastic storyteller or a big fat liar and certainly a not a very good artist. It is a darkly comic fictional autobiographical novel and collection of short stories told in words and pictures. Full of Juliette Binoche look-alikes, self-surgery enthusiasts and bubblewrap fetishists. It will make you laugh and cry and if nothing else finally solves the mystery of what happened to all those missing boybands.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Storage Stories is the tale of a man who used to be a singer in a successful boy band; now he has to face up to "every pop star's nightmare, the most terrifying prospect of all. I might have to get a proper job."
The job is running a storage facility, where he looks after the surplus possessions of Londoners while they move house, travel the world, wait for probate or split up from their partners. Everyone who puts goods into storage has a tale to tell, or one to put on hold: these stories form the substance of the book, alongside the narrator's personal struggle to deal with the emotional and financial implications of not being famous any more.
A singer with Carter The Unstoppable Sex Machine, Jim Bob is familiar with the world of contemporary pop; however, Storage Stories is not documentary but finely crafted fiction. His comments on the music industry - sometimes angry, sometimes wistful, always well informed - from time to time suggest a 21st century retake on material in Nick Hornby's High Fidelity, while the book's location in a world of abandoned goods evokes Stella Duffy's The Room of Lost Things. Jim Bob's writing style is informal, direct, observant and emotionally honest, particularly when the narrator recounts his failings and vulnerabilities as a father. It is also, at times, quite beautiful.
Unusually for an adult novel, Storage Stories has illustrations - witty, poignant sketches which are intrinsic to the narrative. The wounds on the face of Janie, the woman whom the narrator loves but who is being abused by her husband, become ever more sinister, but her smile never fades. The Most Miserable Sweetshop In The World is clearly just that.
Self-published, this book is produced to a high professional standard, with clear type, generous spacing and lots of good visual jokes. It is reasonably priced at £9.99 for a moderately fat, hugely satisfying laugh-till-you-cry paperback.
The job is running a storage facility, where he looks after the surplus possessions of Londoners while they move house, travel the world, wait for probate or split up from their partners. Everyone who puts goods into storage has a tale to tell, or one to put on hold: these stories form the substance of the book, alongside the narrator's personal struggle to deal with the emotional and financial implications of not being famous any more.
A singer with Carter The Unstoppable Sex Machine, Jim Bob is familiar with the world of contemporary pop; however, Storage Stories is not documentary but finely crafted fiction. His comments on the music industry - sometimes angry, sometimes wistful, always well informed - from time to time suggest a 21st century retake on material in Nick Hornby's High Fidelity, while the book's location in a world of abandoned goods evokes Stella Duffy's The Room of Lost Things. Jim Bob's writing style is informal, direct, observant and emotionally honest, particularly when the narrator recounts his failings and vulnerabilities as a father. It is also, at times, quite beautiful.
Unusually for an adult novel, Storage Stories has illustrations - witty, poignant sketches which are intrinsic to the narrative. The wounds on the face of Janie, the woman whom the narrator loves but who is being abused by her husband, become ever more sinister, but her smile never fades. The Most Miserable Sweetshop In The World is clearly just that.
Self-published, this book is produced to a high professional standard, with clear type, generous spacing and lots of good visual jokes. It is reasonably priced at £9.99 for a moderately fat, hugely satisfying laugh-till-you-cry paperback.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Keep them comeing Jim Bob. This was all you might have expected from the the most undersung(no pun intended) lyricist of the 20th cent. Much enjoyed.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
A genuinely brilliant book that always surprises and entertains. Every time you think you have the measure of the book it abruptly, yet gracefully, twists into a parallel reality or finds another tangent to pursue. If you like Magnus Mills or Kurt Vonnegut you'll love this. This book made me stay up too late and be tired at work. It was worth it.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Where Are They Now?
A story that actually makes working in a storage facility sound like a whole load of fun. There is a section of this book that you will likely want to read while covering your... Read more
Published 14 days ago by Mr. D. Sweeney
Storage Stories, being kept out of storage...
Being an old Carter fan, and following Jim through his solo career, i heard about the book ages back and have been waiting and waiting and waiting for it to be published, when i... Read more
Published on 11 May 2010 by David Parry
Top Storage Story
It usually takes me a good year to finish a book. I tend to get distracted, listen to music, watch TV and the like. Read more
Published on 6 May 2010 by C. A. Siersma
Weird, wonderful, funny but very dark
Having read Jim Bob's autobiography about his days with Carter I was expecting his debut novel to be similar in tone and style. Read more
Published on 6 May 2010 by Mr. M. T. Ollington
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