If you have read Nick Flynn's other book, "Another Bullshit Night in Suck City," and liked it, you should read this. It is about the making of the movie and the author's having to view a dramatization of his own life being made. It's interesting.

This is one of the most intense books I have ever read. But it's almost like it isn't trying to be intense; it's written in these short little snips—a quote here, a paragraph there, a page and a half next—flowing from subject to subject, at a constant remove, an increasing-then-releasing philosophical distance, twisting in and around on itself (what a perfect cover design, BTW), yanking you into and out of its intensity so many times that it leaves you breathless. This is Nick Flynn's memoir of

Genius. I think Nick Flynn is my spirit animal.

I received a free copy of this book through Goodreads First Reads. Having not read the original memoir I was unsure what to expect. This is a delightful series of short entries of the author on set of the making of the movie of his previous memoir! It is am engaging read with quick passages. It almost feels you are a part of the process. Now that I finished the book I think I need to check out the movie...and his first memoir!

as with nick flynn's other major prose works, the reenactments is a compelling, vignette-style memoir. flynn's 2004 another bullshit night in suck city was adapted into a film (being flynn) earlier this year, starring robert de niro, julianne moore, and paul dano as the young poet. the reenactments recounts flynn's time spent on set during production, where he engaged with the actors and witnessed the dramatized retelling of two of his life's most consequential events (meeting his father at a ho...

3.5 stars. I loved the style of this memoir most. Also keen to read/ see more of Flynn's work

Memory, mental images, suicide, Glass Flowers, an impossible father, homelessness, a curious infant, no catharsis, Hollywood. Poetic, layered, intense. Not easy reading, a work of art.

I've never read anything like "The Reenactments," Nick Flynn's memoir about the making of "Being Flynn," which was based on his book "Another Bullshit Night in Suck City" (possibly the most compelling title ever...)Flynn combines the surreal nature of watching a movie being made about some of the most tragic moments of his life, while reliving those moments--while reading philosophical and scientific studies on the nature of memory. It all gets jumbled up into a gumbo that's part memoir, part ph...

Really enjoyed Nick Flynn’s Another Bullshit Night in Suck City. Actually, I thought it was fantastic! However, I was a bit reluctant to pick up The Reenactments. The blurb for The Reenactments claims, “For Nick Flynn, that game we all play—the who-would-play-you-in-the-movie-of-your-life game—has been answered. The Reenactments is the story of adapting Flynn's memoir, Another Bullshit Night in Suck City, into a film called Being Flynn.” That description didn’t really pique my interest and, trut...

Wow. This was the first of Nick Flynn’s books I’ve read and am now hunting among my dozen+ bookshelves to find his first memoir, which I bought some time back and never read. Flynn writes flawlessly. While the making of a movie out of a book has to feel amazing, it mostly brings back difficult memories for the author and he writes deeply and with emotion about his journey. It takes a near-perfect writer to be able to jump around, invoking philosophers and scientists throughout, seamlessly tying

I have a problem with memoirs on addiction and mental health issues, especially when told through the prism of the author's family history/structure. The problem is that I will read every last one of them. Nick Flynn is absolutely a favorite. Five years ago I read Another Bullshit Night in Suck City, his debut memoir. His story is, frankly, absurd, in a "you can't make this shit up" way. And yet he handles its telling with such precision!. I read his second memoir, The Ticking Is the Bomb, a few...

The initial project, as the book presents itself, is fascinating--a book that gets meta multiple times removed. It's filled with fascinating thoughts on neurobiology, on trauma, on memory and how it preserves itself. The book never lags, and its moments of brilliance are unforgettable--Flynn's father asking De Niro, "So you do a little acting?" and the final scene in the book particularly stand out.

I've read most of Flynn's work. It tends to be dark and haunting, as to be expected dealing with suicide. This memoir was still dark and haunting but it felt more like Nick accepting what has happened in his past as opposed to allowing it to control his life. A great read if your a fan of Flynn's writing.

Inspiration is a funny thing. Last week I saw and adored Swiss Army Man. Because of that, I’ve started watching every Paul Dano movie I can find. One of those is Being Flynn, the film adaptation of Another Bullshit Night in Suck City by Nick Flynn. But I’m not reading that. I’m reading The Reenactments, Nick Flynn’s musings on the process of making the adaptation. I feel like I got in deep in a very short span of time. I read this book in an even shorter span of time - just now, in one sittingTh...

I have read everything Nick Flynn has written, and loved Another Bullshit Night in Suck City so much. I felt that somehow he had written my memoir, trumped me, even though the family roles were mixed up. I enjoyed the movie but loved the book so much more, so when I saw this book, a memoir of the making of the movie, it was a no-brainer. I started and finished it in one day.It's beautiful. As one of his blurbers said, only poets should write memoir (though I might quibble with that "only"). But

I think is my favorite prose work by Nick Flynn. The book is written on so many levels that I am certain that each time I read it I will see something new (and learn something new about myself).The chapters are all very short - the longest being maybe four pages and shortest being only a few words. If you have read all of his non-fiction, you can see a progression and a synthesis of style "The Reenactments," which uses the making of "Being Flynn" as the unifying element into which he weaves memo...

I think Nick Flynn is a remarkable writer. I recommend his book(s) without reservation simply because his turns of phrase, his minimalist style, and his thoughtfulness always impress me. And yet, I reluctantly give this book two stars because I couldn’t connect with it like I did his two previous memoirs. I couldn’t picture the Agassiz exhibits that housed such a large portion of his childhood memories. I wasn’t enamored with the glass flowers, or as intrigued by how the mind is shaped by memori...

How to describe this book? A first-person study of the psychology of grief? As seen in the making of a movie starring Robert DeNiro and Julianne Moore? Nick Flynn's "memoir" is much more and much less than that. This is no emotional, chronological narrative of his mother's suicide and his dad's raging alcoholism. Instead, it's a pointillistic portrait of these key triggers in his life, and his attempts to reconcile them with his life today, set against the "real" scenes being filmed about those

A fascinating, lyrical reflection on the author's life, memories of that life, and the writing and filming that allowed him to re-experience those memories. Flynn wraps his mind around the complexities of difficult subject matter (the suicide of his mother, his father's homelessness, his own psychological obstacles, the movie Being Flynn--which is about all of this) with candor, philosophical and scientific scrutiny, as well as poetic beauty. This book will make you think in ways you normally do...

Filled with interesting anecdotes about the nature of consciousness, impressions from his childhood, and the shadows of his troubled parents, memory and fiction come together in this memoir by Nick Flynn as he observes the movie about his life being filmed in real time. For any fan of Maggie Nelson and her work, Nick Flynn is an easy recommendation. He is, as I'm told, the man in the blue shirt in 'Bluets.'