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A review by divineauthor
Blue Graffiti by Calahan Skogman
4.0
“Johnston, your streets are pulsing. Bleeding from the cracks. Beneath, your heart is pounding. You are always coming back.” —Cash, page 300
BLUE GRAFFITI is a type of bildungsroman for twenty-something-year-olds who thought they’d live and die in the town they were born in. skogman lays the scene for our quiet, romantic, complexly simple, wisconsin-bred main character, cash, who guides us on a tour through his hometown—his landmarks being his own memories. this slice-of-life-ness leads to this drifting, nostalgic, and heart-warming depiction of johnston, wi and just of humanity in general. you can tell that skogman has such a love for humanity, an empath’s heart with a poet’s pen, to be able to weave love and grief and belonging and isolation and god with the beauty it deserves. the prose is lyrical, philosophical; gutting and stark, when needed, and reminded me of what it feels like to read a great american writer’s early work. also, this is a very me thing to say, but the entire book reminds me of “the view between villages (extended)” by noah kahan (of course, thee contemporary lyricist to mention when talking about staying in your hometown), though i could probably drop most of the album onto this book and have it stick the landing.
all that being said, this is a debut and it felt like it at times. though beautiful, cash’s narration felt too aware, like skogman’s hand rested too heavy on his pen and it bled through the paper. i also have negligible thoughts about the idolization of women and the isolation of johnston itself in the whole of the us and that bit of naïveté cash seems to have about the horrors of the world, but, as i’ve said, they’re negligible. oh, and if anyone’s expecting like a romanceTM from reading the blurb, you probably shouldn’t read this book. the romance is honestly incidental. this is litfic with a heavy emphasis on memory and friendship and family.
fav bits: descriptions of johnston and every single bit about the father and The Father (god). truly some absolutely fucked lines. sick in the goddamn head.
oh!!! also, i HIGHLY recommend listening to the audiobook. the reading experience heightened it all for sure 🫶
BLUE GRAFFITI is a type of bildungsroman for twenty-something-year-olds who thought they’d live and die in the town they were born in. skogman lays the scene for our quiet, romantic, complexly simple, wisconsin-bred main character, cash, who guides us on a tour through his hometown—his landmarks being his own memories. this slice-of-life-ness leads to this drifting, nostalgic, and heart-warming depiction of johnston, wi and just of humanity in general. you can tell that skogman has such a love for humanity, an empath’s heart with a poet’s pen, to be able to weave love and grief and belonging and isolation and god with the beauty it deserves. the prose is lyrical, philosophical; gutting and stark, when needed, and reminded me of what it feels like to read a great american writer’s early work. also, this is a very me thing to say, but the entire book reminds me of “the view between villages (extended)” by noah kahan (of course, thee contemporary lyricist to mention when talking about staying in your hometown), though i could probably drop most of the album onto this book and have it stick the landing.
all that being said, this is a debut and it felt like it at times. though beautiful, cash’s narration felt too aware, like skogman’s hand rested too heavy on his pen and it bled through the paper. i also have negligible thoughts about the idolization of women and the isolation of johnston itself in the whole of the us and that bit of naïveté cash seems to have about the horrors of the world, but, as i’ve said, they’re negligible. oh, and if anyone’s expecting like a romanceTM from reading the blurb, you probably shouldn’t read this book. the romance is honestly incidental. this is litfic with a heavy emphasis on memory and friendship and family.
fav bits: descriptions of johnston and every single bit about the father and The Father (god). truly some absolutely fucked lines. sick in the goddamn head.
oh!!! also, i HIGHLY recommend listening to the audiobook. the reading experience heightened it all for sure 🫶