This book was written in the 80’s, and as you can see from the blurb on the front cover, it helped “usher in the age of memoirs.” I think there have become too many memoirs by half out there, so that’s not why I read (listened to) it; I wanted, instead, to read Annie Dillard. She grew up in Pittsburgh in the 50’s, but her childhood (based on my childhood) was a rather privileged one. Country clubs, summer retreats, white gloves and boy/girl dancing classes. Not something I was all that excited hearing about in so much detail. Detail is a signature feature of this book, and too often, IMHO, there was too much of it. Move on, I would think and vow to stop reading. But then something more interesting would come along, and would be just enough to keep me going (plus, I hate giving up on a book.) I did enjoy her discovery of books and the library–her love of reading. I could empathize with her desire to go somewhere, anywhere other than where she had grown up, and I appreciated/envied her mother’s support of that.
But none of this is really unique, is it? I can’t recommend that you put it on your reading lists.
Now I have started listening to a novel by Kate Atkinson, Life After Life. Rather caught up in it early on, so the signs are good for this one.
Thanks for the review – it’s nice to actually NOT add something to the never-ending list 🙂
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I certainly can relate to that sentiment. Should I leave my reading list to someone (who?) in my will, because there surely will be one left behind.
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Lol, Teri, what an amazing notion- when you think about it tho, leaving almost anything to someone else seems overly egotistical, why not a reading list. But my dad so often questioned it I had read some books that the question seemed like a demanded and now that he has passed it almost feels like a burden I need to undertake.
I can’t agree with Borkali more- my reading list grows by the day, I logged on to order a text book for an upcoming class and i never made it to my intended book but ordered a different one anyone.
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Yep, I wouldn’t want to burden anyone with my reading list. (Note to self: teach spousal unit how to delete book list on the library system’s website, else it will be there forever…or until the funding runs out.)
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