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I listen to The Moth podcast. I feel I should say this to make it clear that I came to this collection already a fan of their admirable setup and the idea of sharing true stories with others — real stories that reveal the human side to the storyteller. This, however, did not prepare me for the 50 stories in this collection.
For those who don’t know The Moth, I clap my hands with glee, for you get to discover this fantastical and magical creation for the first time. A short background for those new to the series: founder George Dawes Green wanted to recreate in New York the feeling of telling stories on his friend Wanda’s porch over sultry summer evenings in his native Georgia, so he brought together writing friends and fellow frustrated raconteurs and thus The Moth was born. Now an acclaimed not-for-profit organization that hosts events and storySLAMs across the US, The Moth is all about the art and craft of storytelling, engaging with the audience and making tales of ordinary life come alive. Translating this spirit into the written word with The Moth: This is a True Story might initially seem a bit of a change-up for them.
If there were ever any doubters, they’ve been proved wrong. Each unique and engaging in their own way, these true tales draw you in from the off — the first story, “Life on a Mobiüs Strip” by Janna Levin, sets the bar for the next 49. Arranged thematically in groups of six or seven stories, the combination of professional and amateur storytellers and performers brilliantly showcase the wide-ranging interpretations of such themes as ‘Coming Home’ or ‘Generations’. The sheer breadth of imagination within each story seems much more because this is real life from every side: honest and beautiful, cruel and unrelenting.
Warren is just everything I would never want in a man. He can’t drive, he’s never had his name on a lease, he’s by own confession completely uneducated, he’s a self-professed obsessive-compulsive… So naturally I’m completely smitten.
— Janna Levin, “Life on a Mobiüs Strip”
It becomes difficult to step away from these voices, they stick in your head and swirl around. Take Darryl ‘D.M.C.’ McDaniels’ story Angel: depressed in the height of Run-D.M.C. fame when he discovers Sarah McLachlan’s song Angel and becomes a closet fan; or Ed Gavagan in “Whatever Doesn’t Kill Me”, when he’s horribly attacked on his way home, loses everything and faces the task of putting his whole life back together. Other highlights are “The Case of the Curious Codes” by Cynthia Riggs, “The Small Town Prisoner” by Wanda Bullard, and “Under the Influence” by Jeffery Rudell — I’ll make myself stop there, but I could go on.
As you read each story, you can’t help but mull over one point, one decision the storyteller made and wonder if you would do the same thing. Because that is at the centre of The Moth, that all the stories told are real and they’ve happened. People have lived them and survived them and now they choose to share them. You can’t help but think, “Each time they say ‘I’ could that have been me?”
Our inherent humanity and connection through experience leads to a wave of empathy and understanding, sympathy and consideration for the fact that someone has chosen to share a part of themselves with you. It makes you search through your own stories, your own experiences to see if you’ve a story to tell, one that could even be worthy of The Moth stage.
The best part, well for me at least, is that The Moth is coming to the Edinburgh International Book Festival this year as part of their ‘Conversations with Others’ events strand. And this is what The Moth is all about: the sharing and the listening of people’s stories and people’s lives.
You won’t be surprised to hear I’m all ready with my ticket. I’m trying to contain my excitement. It’s getting difficult, trust me.
About Eleanor Pender
An avid film and literature fan, Eleanor has knowledge ranging from Charles Dickens to Rian Johnson. She has reviewed film, theatre, TV and books since 2008 in alternative e-zine, Push To Fire to Edinburgh Festival Fringe paper, ThreeWeeks. She has lived in Durham, Liverpool, Manchester, Edinburgh and Bristol. She is currently working on her first young adult fiction novel.
