Joe Brainard: I Remember

Daunt Books, 2025, softcover, 208 pages, 17 x 11 cm

With a new introduction by Olivia Laing, alongside Paul Auster’s original.

‘A masterpiece. One by one, the so-called important books of our time will be forgotten, but Joe Brainard’s modest little gem will endure.’ Paul Auster

An enduring gem, Joe Brainard’s I Remember is a literary and artistic cult classic. Brainard’s method was brilliantly simple: to set down specific memories as they rose to the surface of his consciousness, each beginning with the refrain ‘I remember’: ‘I remember that little jerk you give just before you fall asleep. Like falling.’

Recollections – jokes, confessions, daydreams and memories – were carefully, lovingly woven together. They were of family and friends; of movie stars; of early heterosexual fumblings and later gay life. Brainard's pared-back prose dodged both self-pity and judgement of others, and was written with an ear for musical cadence and an extraordinary painter’s eye. The result is witty, incantatory, profound and wholly captivating.