WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE?

REFLECTIONS OF A WRITER'S LIFE...

by Joseph Torra ‧ RELEASE DATE: N/A

A memoir about one man’s life of writing and self-discovery.

In this remembrance, Torra, who was born in 1955, writes of growing up in Medford, Massachusetts. His family, he notes, didn’t have a lot of formal education, as neither of his parents finished high school, but the author ended up dedicating his life to the arts and education. This memoir chronicles his journey from a childhood working long hours at his father’s gas station to becoming a published author and, eventually, a creative writing teacher at the University of Massachusetts, Boston. In short, nonchronological chapters, he provides readers with various elements of the story, from childhood on. His father was physically abusive, he says, and his parents would fight frequently. Torra tells of experimenting with drugs in his youth, and he touches on his years of substance abuse later in life and his therapy sessions to confront his feelings of anger. Yet, despite such turbulence, he also devoted a great deal of time and energy to his writing and developed a taste for the Beats, Chinese poetry, jazz, and the collagelike prose of Paul Metcalf. He also details the work and thought processes that went into some of his own works. His 1996 novel Gas Station, he says, was the result of “years of reading, writing, living my life as I supposed a writer should live life.” The appeal of the process, he says, was the feeling of freedom: “For me the best part of being a writer has always been that I can do anything that I want.”  

Although the chapters are rather short, the memoir flows in a natural way. Unburdened by a chronological structure, the author is free to juxtapose a portion on the poet Vincent Ferrini with an account of his own experience playing in a rock band in ninth grade, following these with memories of police intervening in a family fight. Throughout, the work hums with a sense of honesty, as when he explains, quite plainly, he felt he had “no control over anything” during his teenage years. Readers receive insights into his lived experiences but without unnecessary embellishment. Yet, in some places, readers may wish that Torra had included more details to paint a more intricate picture. For instance, the author mentions how he became immersed in punk rock and that part of what he loved about that musical genre was the inviting way in which anyone could dance to it, “even if you could only jump up and down”—a statement that ties in well with the overall theme of how art equates with freedom. However, the finer points of experiencing this music remain untold—what attending these punk shows was actually like, for instance, or how they might have changed over time. In the end, though, readers are sure to come away with a solid sense of how Torra developed, and ultimately maintained, a true devotion to the written word.  

An earnest and genuine look at an author’s long commitment to his craft.

Pub Date: N/A

ISBN: 978-1-7367202-2-6

Page Count: -

Publisher: PFP Publishing

Review Posted Online: May 12, 2021

Review Program: Kirkus Indie

Categories:

BIOGRAPHY & MEMOIR | GENERAL BIOGRAPHY & MEMOIR | GENERAL NONFICTION