Let Me Clear My Throat

June 25, 2012
In this funny, visceral collection of essays, Passarello explores the ways our voices can entertain us, connect us, ruin us, vent our pains, and tether us to a place or tradition. Subjects range from sports announcer Myron Cope’s pretzel-mouthed Pittsburghese to Marlon Brando’s gut-wrenching “Stella!” in A Streetcar Named Desire and the punctilious mouth diagrams of Frank Sinatra’s “Tips on Popular Singing” pamphlet. In the most moving essay, an account of Judy Garland’s legendary concert at Carnegie Hall meanders forward and backward through the diva’s troubled life, taking us from the “little red-walled room” of her mother’s womb, filled with her voice, to the glittery blue velvet that lined her final bed after an overdose of Seconal. Passarello isn’t afraid to get personal, either, revealing how years of her own mother’s “harpy” bellowing prepared her to win the 2011 Stella Shouting Contest, and musing on the cawing of the crows that populate her wintry Iowa backyard as a metaphor for the tougher grit that rock ’n’ rollers like the Fendermen injected into popular music’s songbird melodies. The essays are interspersed with brief monologues from voice-over artists, auctioneers, singers, psychics, American Idol contestants, and Holy Rollers, discussing what voice means to them. This striking debut is graceful even in its portrayal of the most barbaric groans and yelping cries.

Starred review from September 1, 2012

In a brilliant combination of rigorous study and conversational tone, actor and essayist Passarello has created a remarkably entertaining and thought-provoking look at the human voice and all of its myriad functions and sounds. In the same fascinating way Oliver Sacks explores scientific curiosities, Passarello has taken something so ubiquitous yet unheralded--the dynamics of the human voice--and crafted more than a dozen engaging essays about it. Covering topics as varied as the memorable but almost assaultive tones of Pittsburgh sportscaster Myron Cope, the blast of discomfiting sound delivered by then-presidential candidate Howard Dean in 2004, a brief but moving portrait of Judy Garland and her 1961 Carnegie Hall concert, and a wonderful piece called "Playing Sick" about the childishly glorious sound of "eew," this collection is an insightful treasure trove, reflecting the author's love and awe of what the human voice can contain. VERDICT Few books explore one idea so completely from such a variety of seemingly disparate angles. A wonderful collection for any reader and every library. Highly recommended.--Peter Thornell, Hingham P.L., MA

Copyright 2012 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

August 15, 2012
A collection of essays by a regional theater actress and writer about the relationship of voice to identity. When Passarello won the 2011 Stella Screaming Contest in New Orleans, it marked the culmination of a lifetime interest in voice. As a child, she took pleasure in trying to out-shout her mother, whom she calls "one of the loudest people I have known in my life." Throughout her young adulthood, she used her voice "as an actor in plays that required lots of talking, some singing and the very occasional scream." Passarello explores how voices work and how a few famous voices became cultural icons. Marlon Brando found screen immortality through the pained screaming of his lover's name in A Streetcar Named Desire. The author writes that his "transmutable hurt is what moves the line of dialogue to raw sound." Brando's Hollywood colleague Judy Garland was the diminutive star with the big, electrifying voice that shook buildings and overwhelmed listeners with its emotional complexity. However, writes Passarello, voices and what they communicate can be the undoing of their owners. In 2004, Democratic presidential candidate Howard Dean's "hostile mutation of a 'Yeah!' cheer" helped sabotage his election hopes. The author's book is a mostly fascinating study of the meaning behind individual voices and other sounds, such as rebel yells, manufactured sound-artist screams and even birdsongs. However, because Passarello does not link the essays together, the text comes across as haphazardly constructed. Fun and intelligent but disjointed reading.

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September 15, 2012
Stellaaaaaaaaaaaaaa! Who can forget Marlon Brando's gut-wrenching wail in A Streetcar Named Desire? In this eclectic collection of essays, actress and writer Passarello explores the ways in which our voices define us, refine us, and connect us to one another. From Billy Idol and his rebel yell to eighteenth-century castrato Farinelli, who mesmerized audiences with his high C, Passarello ponders the encyclopedic range of sounds that emerge from vocalists' throats. Here we learn about the life of an Elvis impersonator, the recording of Johnny B. Goode that accompanied the Voyager astronauts into orbit, and the tragic tale of Judy Garland, whose mother's voice penetrated her every cell from the time she was in the womb. The author intersperses her essays with monologues from individuals who have enjoyed fun and profit with their pipes, including voice-over artist Jim Meskimen and Joe Starkey, the sports announcer who called the legendary Final Play in the 1982 Cal-Stanford Big Game. Passarello, the first woman to win the annual Stella Screaming Contest in New Orleans, informs and delights in this witty, original read.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2012, American Library Association.)