It's a Shame About Ray

A memoir

By: Jonathan Seidler

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Paperback | 5 October 2022

At a Glance

Paperback
256 Pages

Dimensions(cm)
1.8 x 15.4 x 23.4

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IT'S A SHAME ABOUT RAY is an extraordinary and powerful memoir about family, love and the power of music.

My dad, Ray, jabbed steroids into Beyonce's butt when she lost her voice the day of her stadium show. My dad jumped into Sydney Harbour to save my brand-new red Power Ranger toy. My dad made his own jam, muesli and sourdough bread. My dad protected me from cockroaches, but he never, ever killed them. My dad once covered for so many of my demerit points that he lost his own licence and had to ride a bicycle to work for a year. My dad tended a worm farm in the compost bins in our back garden.

Blackly funny and frequently devastating, this memoir traverses family, death, hope, love, survival, compassion and the deep relationship we can develop with music throughout our lives when nothing else is enough. It's a Shame About Ray asks how we shape new identities from old tragedies - and whether the answers might be hiding in the bestselling record of 2001.

Several lifetimes in the making, Jonathan Seidler has created a lyrical and original interrogation of men and memories, a tracklist of songs of innocence and experience that beautifully unpick a life lived to the full - and sometimes spilling over the lip.

My dad ate the whole apple: core, pips and all.

'A brilliant and brutally raw tribute to family, survival and the indisputable profundity of noughties nu-metal.' TIM MINCHIN

'Unbelievably poignant and ingenious. And punk as f*ck.' MEGAN WASHINGTON

About the Author

Jonathan Seidler is a writer, creative and culture critic. His work has been published frequently in The Guardian, Sydney Morning Herald, The Australian, Monocle and GQ. Jonathan co-founded long-running music website One A Day, launched two nationally syndicated fiction series for Broadsheet and recently commissioned, edited and published an Unyoked anthology of nature writing.

As a creative director, Jonathan produced nationally recognised pro bono campaigns for Keep Sydney Open, One Wave and the Equality Campaign. He is a regular guest on ABC Radio National's Download This Show, discussing media, culture and technology. He once played drums in bands, now mostly in his garage.

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