Legs Get Led Astray Paperback – July 3, 2017

Wonderful book. Love me a good memoir. Chloe Caldwell is a fantastic writer, witty, funny and most importantly, true.

Brutally honest and bravely written. The voice is so raw, so pure, so very, very brave. I admire Chloe Caldwell's courage to put what most people don't have the nuts to write. Inspiring.

What really knocks me out is a book that, when you’re all done reading it, you wish the author that wrote it was a terrific friend of yours and you could call him up on the phone whenever you felt like it. —J.D. SalingerThis is how I felt as I read Legs Get Led Astray by Chloe Caldwell. A collection of 24 essays ranging from her early eyes-wide-open days in New York City to babysitting in Portland to doing little less than existing in Berlin, Caldwell’s writing style and voice brings the reader right into her world. Many of the stories involve drugs, sex, drinking, and general debauchery but they are not sensationalized — Caldwell deftly includes these as parts of her life as easily as someone would mention what class she was taking or what she had for breakfast. Because they are, or at least were, normalcies in her life during the times of these essays. Other essays reflect on her mother, a summer spent as a camp counselor, and dealing with dilapidated housing in Brooklyn. This collection is about relationships when it boils down, relationships with men, women, mothers, brothers, and more.Caldwell feels completely honest in her descriptions and motives: “…Luke had this secret knowledge of how to be fascinating, and I had this idea that if I jut slept next to him, fondled his art and read his books, then maybe the secret would rub off on me, too.” Her openings tactfully set the scene without laboring the details: “I am secretly pretending he is my little brother. He is openly pretending I am Ariel from The Little Mermaid … In real life, we’re cousins, it’s winter, and we are sick of spending our nine-to-five together.” More than all this, Legs Get Led Astray is about a young woman experiencing life with little inhibition and just going for it and that’s why I love this collection so very very much.A highly recommended read for all those who are both in and past those crazy years of running around chasing excitement. Legs Get Led Astray is published by Future Tense Books. Learn more about Chloe Caldwell and her writing at [...]

i fell in love with the book in the beginning.i connected with pieces and experiences. but towards the end of the book i felt like the author was justifying, whether to us or herself, that people found her important. that she was something special and loved by all. i finally disconnected around her trip to europe. i wanted more. a revelation, an epiphany, a lesson learned or values learned. if she had, i didn't see it.