About the Author

A terrific new review in Midwest Book Review - by Diane Donovan

Stories I've Been Meaning to Tell You is a memoir that embraces a wild ride through coming-of-age adventures and confrontations. It will delight readers interested in absorbing a character who journeys on the darker path of reaching adulthood, and reflects the avid "you are here" feel of a storyteller who certainly knows how to spin a good yarn.

Whether he's stealing motorcycles, being thrown out of yet another school, or dabbling in the dubious film industry, Andy Romanoff's vivid experiences portend only one thing - the unexpected.

These adventures come to life in a manner that proves that the allure of the memoir genre lies not just in life events, but how they are depicted. Stories I've Been Meaning to Tell You also embraces facets of identity, Jewish connections and upbringing, and the rituals of family of origin, family of making, and the family of God, which doesn't work for the narrator in earlier years when he actively spurns every aspect of religion:

Time passes. For the next thirty odd years I am Jewish, but only if you ask me what I was born. I am drugged or busy and share the universe with other living beings - not dead ones. I marry, have children, a wife. She is Darcy, born questioning. She is the one who finds kinship among the Jews, and becomes one. I am her reluctant partner in this. She teaches me about ritual, and over time I experience it. I learn the importance of repetition, and slowly I submit. God doesn't hear, but it doesn't matter. Being reminded of what is important; chanting with the others, resetting the course is enough.

Lovely color photos pepper these accounts, bringing to life the places and atmospheres Romanoff traverses in the course of his journey. Set in Chicago (where "Schools were giant machines, 3 - 4 - 5 thousand kids in a single building, busy learning the post-war skills they would need to be part of the economy, the world"), the candid and unexpectedly wry observations Romanoff makes not only document the world around him, but admit to personal psychological failings (as evidenced in the vignette 'Stupid People I've Been Along the Way').

As Romanoff moves from job to job and through life experience to life experience, the nature of his world and ways comes to life in a journey that moves from Chicago to Miami, London, and various world locales before he winds up in Los Angeles.

Readers seeking a rollicking ride through cultural confrontations and experiences, whether they be Jewish identity, Southern California filmdom, or personal growth processes, will find this memoir revealing.

Libraries seeking memoirs that are immersed in the flavors and experiences of yesteryear will find Stories I've Been Meaning to Tell You's interconnected vignettes to be especially attractive to patrons who want life stories served up with succinct power.

What a pleasure conversing with Sharla Fox at the La Quinta Museum. I read from the book and we shared a conversation about the creative process -- if you want to hear some of it check us out in the videos on the left.

It was a fun night for the forty-plus people who showed up on October 5th to hear a new story and to hear Zan Romanoff ask great writer questions about how a story sneaks into your mind and asks to be told. Thanks to everyone who showed up!

The bottom link in the video section is a new one, me sitting at a table on Chung King Rd. and reading A Few Nights in Jail at the Heartbreak Hotel. Check it out and subscribe to the YouTube channel to see more stories as they roll out.

It was a packed house at the Beat Museum when they hosted a very special evening with Andy Romanoff, reading Stories I've Been Meaning to Tell You. Joining Andy in conversation, and reading from his own stories, was his good friend Wavy Gravy.

In case you missed it, photographer/videographer Barry Schwartz (@barryschwartz1) was front and center shooting stills and video of the event:

https://player.vimeo.com/video/826562379?h=d75bfdb24e

Andy Romanoff reading from “Stories I’ve Been Meaning To Tell You”, with Wavy Gravy, May 1, 2023. from Barry Schwartz on Vimeo.