Honest, well-intentioned personal history.
In her debut memoir, an African-American woman tells the story of how she became an advocate for social change.
The book begins with a moving prologue in which Lockhart tells of counseling high-risk teenage girls, setting the stage for the author’s story of discrimination, self-hatred, personal growth and self-acceptance. Lockhart was born in Eudora, Ark., and at age 5, after her parents’ divorce, she moved to Mt. Pleasant, Tenn. Her mother, Thelma, who dreamed of becoming a New York model, sent the author to Lansing, Mich., to live with her aunt and uncle, with the understanding she could return when her mother had a career and steady income. While living with the Ewings, Lockhart was sexually abused by her uncle starting at age 8; her trust faltered and she shut herself off from others. Growing up in the turbulent 1960s during the civil-rights movement, the author experienced athletic and academic success and, because she was light-skinned, prejudice from both whites and blacks. In time, her dreams of becoming an Olympic athlete were supplanted by a career in social service, although she earned money in other ways, including cleaning houses and even writing speeches for baseball superstar Hank Aaron. Her minister husband, whom she later divorced, was abusive and irresponsible; the book insightfully explores how a woman of beauty, intelligence and determination can end up in such an oppressive marriage. The narrative, although well written, occasionally lags, but celebrity references (in addition to Aaron, she was acquainted with the singer Marvin Gaye and civil-rights pioneer Rev. Ralph David Abernathy, among others) pick up the pace, as does a stirring account of Lockhart’s climbing Mt. Kilimanjaro. Readers may find some points contentious; for example, during the author’s account of her career in social services, she faults the white power structure for the sad state of the “system” in Michigan, although both the administrator who hired her and her supervisor were African-American. Overall, however, the book is a redemptive tale of confronting challenges and finding the courage to forgive and move on.
Honest, well-intentioned personal history.Pub Date: Dec. 7, 2012
ISBN: 978-0985881801
Page Count: 260
Publisher: Gloria Lockhart
Review Posted Online: Jan. 25, 2013
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A generous and singularly insightful examination of memoir.
A bestselling nonfiction writer offers spirited commentary about memoir, the literary form that has become synonymous with her name.
Personal narrative has exploded in popularity over the last 20 years. Yet, as Karr (Lit: A Memoir, 2009, etc.) points out, memoir still struggles to attain literary respectability. “There is a lingering snobbery in the literary world,” she writes, “that wants to disqualify what is broadly called nonfiction from the category of ‘literature.’ ” In this book, Karr offers both an apology for and a sharp-eyed exploration of this form born from her years as a practitioner as well as a distinguished English professor at Syracuse University. She begins by considering classroom “experiments” she has conducted to show the slipperiness of memory and arguing the need to give latitude to writers tackling memoir. Writing with the intent to record what rings true rather than exact is one thing; writing with the intent to lie is another. Voice is another critical aspect of any memoir that manages to endure through time. By examining works by writers as diverse as Frank McCourt and Vladimir Nabokov, Karr demonstrates that it is in fact the very thing by which a great memoir “lives or dies.” Rather than focus on the narrative truism of “show-don’t-tell,” Karr thoughtfully elaborates on what she calls “carnality”—the ability to transform memory into a multisensory experience—for the reader. When wed to a desire to move beyond the traps of ego and render personal “psychic struggle” honestly and without fear, carnality can lead to writing that not only “wring[s] some truth from the godawful mess of a single life,” but also connects deeply with readers. Karr’s sassy Texas wit and her down-to-earth observations about both the memoir form and how to approach it combine to make for lively and inspiring reading.
A generous and singularly insightful examination of memoir.Pub Date: Sept. 15, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-06-222306-7
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 5, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2015
PROFILES
Naughty good fun from an impossibly sardonic rogue, quickly rising to Twainian stature.
The undisputed champion of the self-conscious and the self-deprecating returns with yet more autobiographical gems from his apparently inexhaustible cache (Naked, 1997, etc.).
Sedaris at first mines what may be the most idiosyncratic, if innocuous, childhood since the McCourt clan. Here is father Lou, who’s propositioned, via phone, by married family friend Mrs. Midland (“Oh, Lou. It just feels so good to . . . talk to someone who really . . . understands”). Only years later is it divulged that “Mrs. Midland” was impersonated by Lou’s 12-year-old daughter Amy. (Lou, to the prankster’s relief, always politely declined Mrs. Midland’s overtures.) Meanwhile, Mrs. Sedaris—soon after she’s put a beloved sick cat to sleep—is terrorized by bogus reports of a “miraculous new cure for feline leukemia,” all orchestrated by her bitter children. Brilliant evildoing in this family is not unique to the author. Sedaris (also an essayist on National Public Radio) approaches comic preeminence as he details his futile attempts, as an adult, to learn the French language. Having moved to Paris, he enrolls in French class and struggles endlessly with the logic in assigning inanimate objects a gender (“Why refer to Lady Flesh Wound or Good Sir Dishrag when these things could never live up to all that their sex implied?”). After months of this, Sedaris finds that the first French-spoken sentiment he’s fully understood has been directed to him by his sadistic teacher: “Every day spent with you is like having a cesarean section.” Among these misadventures, Sedaris catalogs his many bugaboos: the cigarette ban in New York restaurants (“I’m always searching the menu in hope that some courageous young chef has finally recognized tobacco as a vegetable”); the appending of company Web addresses to television commercials (“Who really wants to know more about Procter & Gamble?”); and a scatological dilemma that would likely remain taboo in most households.
Naughty good fun from an impossibly sardonic rogue, quickly rising to Twainian stature.Pub Date: June 1, 2000
ISBN: 0-316-77772-2
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2000
PERSPECTIVES
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