Sounds Like Titanic: A Memoir
Sounds Like Titanic: A Memoir book cover

Sounds Like Titanic: A Memoir

Hardcover – February 12, 2019

by
Price
$15.59
Format
Hardcover
Pages
256
Publisher
W. W. Norton & Company
Publication Date
ISBN-13
978-0393651645
Dimensions
5.8 x 1 x 8.6 inches
Weight
12.5 ounces

Description

An Amazon Best Book of February 2019: True story: A poor, young Appalachian woman heads to an Ivy League with ambitions of becoming a concert violinist. When she gets there, she learns that she’s not nearly good enough, and she’s killing herself to make tuition. Still, she answers a job listing on a message board for a seat in some kind of “ensemble,” and she’s hired without an audition. Her first gig is selling CDs by a man only identified as The Composer at a booth in a craft fair while two other musicians (one on violin, the other on penny whistle) play low under loudly broadcast New Age-y music, which sounds vaguely, or maybe a lot, like the Titanic soundtrack. Soon she’s onstage with The Composer himself, touring the country in a derelict RV with a select “ensemble,” miming the music emanating from a hidden CD player for adoring crowds—an act Hindman dubs “Milli Violini.” In our new age of malleable facts and fungible truth, Sounds Like Titanic hits some trenchant notes on the nature of truth and uncomfortable observations on gender. She anguishes over both the deception (and an overwhelming fear of being caught) and what feels like the betrayal of a lifetime of support from family and her small-town community. But it’s also entertaining. Hindman somehow avoids any meanness of spirit, even while having a lot of fun at the Yanni-like Composer’s expense. (We’re never given the his real name, but one will speculate.) “Fake it till you make it”—a phrase Hindman never writes, probably consciously—might not be so bad, after all. --Jon Foro, Amazon Book Review " Sounds Like Titanic would be unbelievable as a novel, but as a memoir it is deliciously bizarre and utterly American. It’s a Coen Brothers movie come to life―Ruby Tuesday, QVC, and one woman working for years as a fake violinist for classical music’s version of Thomas Kinkade. I couldn’t put it down." ― Caitlin Doughty, bestselling author of From Here to Eternity and Smoke Gets in Your Eyes "Sardonic, moving." ― New Yorker "[An] outrageously funny, shrewdly meta memoir." ― O, The Oprah Magazine "[A] most original memoir, one in which the narrator’s intelligence deepens by the page…. I salute Jessica Hindman for having shaped so well a remarkable piece of experience." ― Vivian Gornick, author of The Odd Woman and the City: A Memoir " Sounds Like Titanic … is a memoir with bite. …[Hindman’s] fascinating personal story, with its unexpected twists, puts the memorable into this memoir." ― NPR "Brave and captivating.xa0" ― Tucker Coombe, Los Angeles Review of Books "[A] rich, powerful book." ― Constance Grady, Vox "It’s difficult to write a funny, angry book. It’s even harder to write a merciless, empathetic book. But here comes Jessica Hindman, doing the impossible with a funny, angry, merciless, empathetic book that’s not only a hugely entertaining memoir, but an insightful meditation on a time in our nation’s recent history whose strange and ominous influence grows more apparent by the day." ― Tom Bissell, author of Apostle and coauthor of The Disaster Artist "Hindman is an emissary for a generation, repurposing its sarcasm and irony in a nuanced, humorous, and intelligent look at what it means to construct and consume fake realities in post-9/11 America." ― Angela Palm, winner of the Graywolf Press Nonfiction Prize for Riverine "It’s rare that a memoir―or any book―manages to be gripping, intelligent, witty, informative, and relatable all at the same time. Hindman mourns her lack of success as a professional musician, but we can all be endlessly happy she became a writer instead." ― Katherine Heiny, author of Standard Deviation "An evocative portrait of America’s literal and figurative landscapes, an incisive look at class and gender, and an examination of what authenticity means." ― Justin St. Germain, author of Son of a Gun "Although her violin days are over, Hindman can be assured that she’s accomplished something incredible: she has written a memoir about identity and finding a sense of self that is funny, personal, empathetic, and amazingly true." ― Lily McLemore, BookPage "[P]rovocative. … A tricky, unnerving, consistently fascinating memoir." ― Kirkus Reviews (starred review) Jessica Chiccehitto Hindman has “performed” on PBS, QVC, and at concert halls worldwide. Her writing has appeared in the New York Times Magazine , McSweeney's , Brevity , and Hippocampus . She holds a BA in Middle Eastern studies and an MFA in creative nonfiction writing from Columbia University, and a PhD in English from the University of North Texas. She teaches creative writing at Northern Kentucky University and lives in Newport, Kentucky. Read more

Features & Highlights

  • A young woman leaves Appalachia for life as a classical musician―or so she thinks.
  • When aspiring violinist Jessica Chiccehitto Hindman lands a job with a professional ensemble in New York City, she imagines she has achieved her lifelong dream. But the ensemble proves to be a sham. When the group “performs,” the microphones are never on. Instead, the music blares from a CD. The mastermind behind this scheme is a peculiar and mysterious figure known as The Composer, who is gaslighting his audiences with music that sounds suspiciously like the
  • Titanic
  • movie soundtrack. On tour with his chaotic ensemble, Hindman spirals into crises of identity and disillusionment as she “plays” for audiences genuinely moved by the performance, unable to differentiate real from fake.
  • Sounds Like Titanic
  • is a surreal, often hilarious coming-of-age story. Hindman writes with precise, candid prose and sharp insight into ambition and gender, especially when it comes to the difficulties young women face in a world that views them as silly, shallow, and stupid. As the story swells to a crescendo, it gives voice to the anxieties and illusions of a generation of women, and reveals the failed promises of a nation that takes comfort in false realities.

Customer Reviews

Rating Breakdown

★★★★★
30%
(79)
★★★★
25%
(66)
★★★
15%
(39)
★★
7%
(18)
★
23%
(60)

Most Helpful Reviews

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Beautifully written, brave, and illuminating

This author was in high school with my children 20+ years ago, and her parents are friends. So, of course, I wanted to read Jessica's first published book. That's why I bought it. But that's not why I've chosen to review it and give it a five-star rating.

Those stars were earned because this is not only a beautifully written book and a compelling story, it is also a book that required (on the part of the author) courage, intelligence, research, and brutal honesty to peel back the layers of lies, truth, perception, and raw emotion around several years of her life. It is ultimately a book about humanity and the many ways each person chooses to cope with life, luck (good and bad), hardship, and the stories we tell ourselves in an attempt to make sense of it all. it is also a fascinating and clear-eyed perspective on the challenges of coming of age in the late 1990s and the cultural and psychological impact of 9/11 on our whole society.

Jessica toured for several years as a violinist with an ensemble who only pretended to play and the audience heard only canned music. This alone was a strange and fascinating story. Her myriad physical and mental health issues during this time were hard to read about, but she poignantly depicted the turbulence and danger of youthful anxiety and stress. The author tells her story with honesty and compassion...compassion for her young self and for the parents she knows she is lucky to have.

Some of the writing took my breath away as it pulled me into her world and experiences. Her description of the emotional impact of the music she played on the violin in a high school concert from Fritz Kreisler's "Praeludium and Allegro in the style of Pugnani" was one of the most brilliant and masterful pieces of writing about a powerful musical experience I've ever read (think Ann Patchett's passages about opera in Bel Canto).

Besides writing exquisitely, besides bringing us a fascinating story, besides taking us on a thoughtful journey through turn-of-the-21st-century culture and societal landmarks, Jessica Hindman has also shown us how to look at life, sift through the clues to its meaning, and find the strength to identify and hang on to what's true and worth preserving—how to navigate the pain, confusion, and messiness and still emerge with newfound insights, convictions, and appreciations—ones that will serve you well for the next leg of your journey.

Bravo, Jessica. You've reminded us that we must never let anyone else define success for us. It is ours alone to define and embrace, as you have clearlydone in your own life.
17 people found this helpful
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Couldn't Put It Down

Jessica Chiccehitto Hindman's Sounds Like Titanic is a fascinating account of her life--the life of a woman from West Virginia who intends to major in music at Columbia, finds Middle Eastern Studies, wants to become a journalist, but works for four years as a violinist in an ensemble that tours the U.S. and China playing music by The Composer. Except that the ensemble actually plays along with a blaring CD track so that all audiences actually hear is music that was recorded by other musicians years earlier. Ordinarily, I prefer books that are more linear in nature; however, Hindman's abrupt shifts from her experiences in The Composer's ensemble, to her childhood, to high school, college, and so on, work very well. The reader feels like they really know who Hindman is, how her experiences with The Composer's ensemble affected her, and why.

Although the author changes the names of the compositions, PBS specials, and tours, and even though she refers to her employer as The Composer, it takes very little research to find that she was part of the Tim Janis Ensemble in the early 2000s, the time period during which she worked for The Composer. Although The Composer becomes a sympathetic figure late in the narrative, fans of T.J. may find that the book exposes him as something of a musical charlatan (he doesn't know Beethoven's Symphony No. 5, perhaps the most well-known orchestral composition in history), a man of little depth as a composer, and a man out of touch with what was happening in the United States of the early 2000s. By the way, the book's title comes from the fact that The Composer's music all sounds suspiciously like a relaxing New Age version of James Horner's score for the hit movie Titanic.

This is a real page turner, and is a must-read book for musicians in particular!
7 people found this helpful
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Falls short

Hate to say it, but not that great of a book, although it has a fascinating premise. But I do love the irony of a book condemning fakery addressing “you” and thus pretending that I, the reader, have experienced these events.

The harsh truth is that nobody wants to read a pity party about having no talent. Or about not being handed a prestigious job (be it in music or in journalism) on the first try right out of college. Despite having dreamed of being a violinist since a child, the author discovers she can’t make it in college - fair enough, no sense in wasting your time on something that isn’t working. She changes her focus to Middle Eastern Studies...and the same thing happens. She dives in the deep end of job applications and is pissed that she can’t get a job right away as a war correspondent or working for the New York Times. This is why millennials are stereotyped as entitled, people.

Point being, no matter what field you go into, there will always be someone more talented. Someone like Jessica - who doesn’t have the wealth or connections to waltz into a New York Times job interview and become a full-fledged correspondent on the spot - are going to have to start small and put in hard work, more so than rich and well-connected and talented people, no matter what career they ultimately pick. Even the most talented of Columbia’s music graduates are going to need a few years of experience before they go into a New York Phil audition and win concertmaster. The rest of us aren’t going to have life handed to us on a silver platter, we’re going to work seriously hard to get any kind of decent job.

On a more positive note, I’d like to think that there is something real in classical music, even if you have to avoid canned inspirational drivel to find it. I play with several orchestras, at a lower level than the New York Phil, and it’s real and human, complete with the warts and flaws that come with not playing along to a recording. There’s genuine emotion there. A secondhand reproduction if you will, but it’s something the performers can relate to because we’re not crazily grinning robots. We tell the stories of much more than cheap manufactured moments and go into some harsh tales. There are symphonies that are suicide notes, that describe genocide and war and being hospitalized while knowing you’re not coming out again. But there’s also triumph over all these. Recordings of deciding to go on despite crippling depression. Three orchestras coming together to celebrate the Berlin Wall coming down. All that is missing from this book - and perhaps also from the author’s experience.
5 people found this helpful
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Distilling the real from the faking it

Amazing!! Hindman distills years of discordant experiences into personal and social wisdom. Her writing is pithy and memorable - worthy of copying into “your” own journal. I especially love the shorthand tags for phenomena she has described - “life in the body” and “The Money” and “mountain fog.” A very relatable and insightful look at American culture. Blown away.
3 people found this helpful
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Just Because It's Fake Doesn't Mean It Isn't Real

I am glad I didn't read too much about Sounds Like Titanic before I read it. If I had known it was written in the second person (consistently saying "you" instead of "I") or that the tour went on for four years, I probably would have taken a pass. It's a quirky book, it doesn't fit neatly into normal categories, but generally speaking, it's a memoir about a young woman's experiences as a violinist in an ensemble that performs to recorded music. They are playing the music live, but what the audience hears is the recorded music, performed by other musicians, over the sound system. The live musicians are there to LOOK like musicians. So it's a sham, but there's a lot more to the story. Jessica Hindman was on tour with this group of new-agey musicians off and on over four years, traveling all over the country in an RV, and occasionally overseas. It's a weird gig, but she got to see and experience a lot, and she grew up in a sense, in that very peculiar environment. I liked the story more than I expected to, despite the second person affectation (even at one point drifting into third person), and I think she's probably a better genuine writer than a fake musician. Hope to see more from this writer.
3 people found this helpful
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Maybe interesting but too poorly written

The premise was quite intriguing -- a violinist faking their way onto a symphonic tour. I listened to the audio version of this and gave up part-way through because I could not get past annoying aspects of the writing. For starters, even though it is autobiographical, the writer chooses to write half of it in the second-person, using "you" instead of "I". Since it was not wholly consistent, it was jarring. The author offered a brief explanation as to the reason -- something about separating themselves from the trauma of the experience. Additionally, the writing jumped all over the place in terms of back-and-forth quickly on timeframes. I don't need a story to be linear, but this was too jumpy. Lastly, I am guessing that there is a great 15-minute story in here but it's surrounded by uninteresting background.
2 people found this helpful
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Boredom made for top level musiians.

Boring and only diciphrable by top level musicions.
1 people found this helpful
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I want more!

I want more!
This book kept me up engaged, interested, made me scratch my head, got me anxious, worried, and thrilled - totally stirred up my emotions. I kept wanting just one more page, just one more chapter and before I was ready to let go it was over. Good old times of being able to read a book in one sitting are way behind me but I almost dis read this in one sitting. I definitely wished for it. I am a fiction girl, there is more potential to a good story when you’re making it up and can spin it the way you want but this memoir kept me wanting more. I won’t give out too many details but it’s about a violinist who plays in fake concerts. Go figure how strange that can go.

I am so glad I didn’t read reviews prior to reading a book and definitely recommend to go on and attack those pages. You are going to love it.
1 people found this helpful
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I want more!

I want more!
This book kept me up engaged, interested, made me scratch my head, got me anxious, worried, and thrilled - totally stirred up my emotions. I kept wanting just one more page, just one more chapter and before I was ready to let go it was over. Good old times of being able to read a book in one sitting are way behind me but I almost dis read this in one sitting. I definitely wished for it. I am a fiction girl, there is more potential to a good story when you’re making it up and can spin it the way you want but this memoir kept me wanting more. I won’t give out too many details but it’s about a violinist who plays in fake concerts. Go figure how strange that can go.

I am so glad I didn’t read reviews prior to reading a book and definitely recommend to go on and attack those pages. You are going to love it.
1 people found this helpful
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A Review from Bookworm1858

This book did not go at all the way I expected. I thought it would follow the author around her tours as she faked playing the violin for hundreds. And it does include that, which astonishes me that people would buy it but hey I go to a lot of pop concerts with lip syncing so anything goes. But it also goes deeper than that with insights into the author's upbringing in Appalachia, what she went through to get out, and her anxieties about growing up poor, female, discounted by the world. I felt punched in the gut a few times as I realized where her experiences overlapped mine and she brought to light new ways to conceive of my own life despite its differences from hers.
1 people found this helpful

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