Book review: ‘I Remember’ by Joe Brainard

I first learnt of American artist Joe Brainard’s I Remember in Wendy Cope’s essay collection Life, Love and the Archers, in which she recommends using Brainard’s ‘I remember’ idea as a way to get the writing juices flowing. I later also encountered the same book in Brian Dillon’s In the Dark Room. So, when I saw this cult classic had recently been re-released, I snapped up a copy.

Brainard’s brilliantly simple idea was to write a memoir of random recollections in which each short, usually single-sentence paragraph begins with the same two words: I remember.

It’s a brief but entertaining read, mixing memories of humorous and historic events, friends and acquaintances, sexual encounters, old jokes, commercial products, and other random paraphernalia. I have no idea why, but my favourite of these reminiscences was:

I remember when fiberglass was going to solve everything.

A fun book.