May 12, 2005
GO ASK OGRE Author Jolene Siana To Embark On Book Signing Tour
Expect her in Chicago at Quimby's in September. Watch MK for future dates.
As reported here earlier, Go Ask Ogre; Letters from a Deathrock Cutter is available on amazon.com. You will have to wait until June for delivery however, it looks like amazon is selling it less than your local bookseller.
Check it out!
GO ASK OGRE Jolene Siana was an alienated teenager from a depressed neighborhood of a dying Midwestern city. Her mother was single, alcoholic, and abusive. In this unstable environment, Jolene grew suicidal and became a cutter someone who cuts their skin to feel relief from emotional pain. Jolene found solace by obsessively drawing and painting, and immersing herself in dark and foreboding music that began to emerge in the late 80’s: industrial, goth, and post-punk indie rock. This love for music and making art, mixed with the feeling that no one understood her, led her to begin writing revealing personal letters to Kevin Ogilvie (a.k.a Ogre), the front man and vocalist of Skinny Puppy, a groundbreaking industrial band. Nivek Ogre seemed a kindred spirit to Jolene, and he soon began to receive a flood of elaborately illustrated letters, collages and journals filled with Jolene’s thoughts, dreams, and challenges, as well as the day-to-day minutiae of being a teenager in Toledo, Ohio. Shortly after Jolene started writing to Ogre, a reply arrived from him by mail. Ogre’s interest led him to meet Jolene in person. He encouraged her writing and said that he had saved all of her letters, and one day, he would return them all. Over the next three years, Jolene evolved from being an extremely troubled high school senior into a college student who flirted with disaster by way of drugs and abusive relationships, into a young woman who had begun to discover a sense of her own worth. Nine years after Jolene sent her last letter, a large box arrived at Jolene’s door. Ogre’s promise was fulfilled. After sifting through 73 letters, 14 postcards, and five notebooks, Jolene found herself with an unintentional memoir. Go Ask Ogre is a fascinating collection of letters and artwork in an intense, intimate peek into the real-life world of a misfit, who, through the power of self-expression, found her own way out of the dysfunctional world around her. Delving into the industrial and goth music scene, a world that many parents and political leaders blamed for horrors like Columbine, Jolene found a way to forge her own path to self-awareness, self-acceptance, and hope for the future. Go Ask Ogre is a cross between newer young adult journals such as Diary of a Teenage Girl by Phoebe Gloeckner, Please Don’t Kill the Freshman by Zoe Trope, and The Journey is the Destination by Dan Eldon, and themes from classic young adult diaries edited by Beatrice Sparks (e.g. Go Ask Alice, Jay's Journal, etc.). Departing from the tragedy-laden Sparks tradition, Go Ask Ogre presents it’s dysfunctional teen with a sense of humor in an admirable buoyancy, even in her darkest moments. The book brings a meaningful twist to the deviant teen morality tale by providing a real-life and inspirational happy ending. Go Ask Ogre also reveals what is was like to grow up weird in the Midwest in the 80’s at a time when heavy metal and Reagan ruled, and being into alternative music branded you an outcast and freak. Unflinching in its candor, Jolene’s book also speaks directly to young people about self-mutilation and other aspects of teen desperation.
Posted by MK Magazine at May 12, 2005 12:49 PM