Hunger Makes Me a Modern Girl Book Summary

In 'Hunger Makes Me a Modern Girl,' Carrie Brownstein takes readers on a compelling journey through her life as a musician, writer, and creative force behind the iconic band Sleater-Kinney. With unflinching honesty, she reflects on the struggles of navigating the music industry, the weight of expectations, and the thrill of artistic expression. Brownstein's tale is filled with poignant moments of self-discovery and the complexities of femininity in a male-dominated scene. As she intertwines personal anecdotes with broader cultural insights, readers are left questioning their own definitions of success and identity. This memoir is a celebration of resilience and the transformative power of art, inviting you to explore what it truly means to be a modern girl.

By Carrie Brownstein

Published: 2016

""In the end, it's the moments of connection, the conversations that spark something inside us, that truly nourish our creative souls.""

Book Review of Hunger Makes Me a Modern Girl

From the guitarist of the pioneering band Sleater-Kinney, the book Kim Gordon says "everyone has been waiting for" and a New York Times Notable Book of 2015-- a candid, funny, and deeply personal look at making a life--and finding yourself--in music. Before Carrie Brownstein became a music icon, she was a young girl growing up in the Pacific Northwest just as it was becoming the setting for one the most important movements in rock history. Seeking a sense of home and identity, she would discover both while moving from spectator to creator in experiencing the power and mystery of a live performance. With Sleater-Kinney, Brownstein and her bandmates rose to prominence in the burgeoning underground feminist punk-rock movement that would define music and pop culture in the 1990s. They would be cited as “America’s best rock band” by legendary music critic Greil Marcus for their defiant, exuberant brand of punk that resisted labels and limitations, and redefined notions of gender in rock. HUNGER MAKES ME A MODERN GIRL is an intimate and revealing narrative of her escape from a turbulent family life into a world where music was the means toward self-invention, community, and rescue. Along the way, Brownstein chronicles the excitement and contradictions within the era’s flourishing and fiercely independent music subculture, including experiences that sowed the seeds for the observational satire of the popular television series Portlandia years later. With deft, lucid prose Brownstein proves herself as formidable on the page as on the stage. Accessibly raw, honest and heartfelt, this book captures the experience of being a young woman, a born performer and an outsider, and ultimately finding one’s true calling through hard work, courage and the intoxicating power of rock and roll.

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"In the end, it's the moments of connection, the conversations that spark something inside us, that truly nourish our creative souls."

Hunger Makes Me a Modern Girl

By Carrie Brownstein