Party of One: A Memoir in 21 Songs

Holmes lives a life of misery, struggling to find his way into a club that will have someone like him for a member, and he gladly shares his moments of humiliation with anyone ready to listen in this pointless, unfunny, and eventually wearisome memoir. Growing up in St. Louis, Holmes tells his mother that he finds another boy cute, and his mother replies that boys don’t call other boys cute. At that moment, he realizes that he has a self he could show to the world and one he’d have to hide; the song that got him through this time in life was Billy Joel’s “I Love You Just the Way You Are.” Holmes meanders along in his life, mostly feeling out of place, until he decides that he’s filled with desire to be a student at Holy Cross (“gorgeous campus”); the sound track to these years includes the Replacements’ “Achin’ to Be,” Tears for Fears’ “Sowing the Seeds of Love,” and Edie Brickell and New Bohemians’ “What I Am.” Holmes eventually winds up in New York and becomes a runner-up on MTV’s “Wanna Be a VJ” contest after coming in as runner-up in the network’s “Wanna Be a VJ” contest. During his time at MTV, he works on the videos for Destiny Child’s “Say My Name” and Britney Spears’s “Baby One More Time,” among others. In general, Holmes comes across as self-absorbed, and when he’s let go from MTV and continues his search for love, happiness, and self-acceptance, he becomes much more relatable. [em](June) [/em]