A thoughtful consideration of an iconic memoir.
Essayist, editor, and memoirist Birkerts, preoccupied by thoughts of “time, memory, patterns,” was drawn to Speak, Memory, the Russian author’s finely crafted rendering of his past. In a sensitive, sympathetic examination of the memoir, Birkerts focuses both on Nabokov’s revelations about his life and, in close detail, on his craft: how “he worked his strategies from page to page.” As a memoirist himself, Birkerts looks to Nabokov as exemplar: How does one write a memoir? What unconscious forces shape it? He admires Nabokov’s ability to convey details about his childhood while maintaining authorial distance: “the naive before presented through the filter of the sophisticated after.” Birkerts had been unpleasantly surprised by the response of many people he portrayed in his own memoir; some felt miscast and others slighted because they played only a small part. Nabokov, he notes, “chose to honor the essential privacy of his immediate family” while at the same time making his narrative seem intimate, choosing even to include family photos. Besides seeing Nabokov as his “guide and inspiration,” Birkerts feels an affinity for his experience of exile, nostalgia, and cultural dislocation. The son of Latvian immigrants, Birkerts, too, grew up feeling “an inner split,” which generated in him an abiding penchant “for contemplating the past.” He charts his responses to rereading the book at several different times in his life as well as his growing admiration for “the lyricism, the unwinding brilliance of the sentences.” He closely examines the “sardonic, playful, melancholic, fanatically precise” quality of the author’s voice on the page. Along with discoursing on themes of “eternity and infinity,” Birkerts closes by reflecting on “the sweeping cultural transition” from analog to digital that he has long decried, reflections that set his response to Nabokov in context.
A thoughtful consideration of an iconic memoir.Pub Date: Dec. 1, 2020
ISBN: 978-1632-46107-0
Page Count: 176
Publisher: Ig Publishing
Review Posted Online: Aug. 27, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2020
Honest, of course, but also surprisingly approachable and engaging.
W. has his say.
In a page-turner structured around important decisions in his life and presidency, Bush surprises with a lucid, heartfelt look back. Despite expected defenses of past decisions, Bush is candid and unafraid to say when he thinks he was wrong. Critics on both the left and right are challenged to walk in his shoes, and may come away with a new view of the former president—or at least an appreciation of the hard and often ambiguous choices he was forced to make. Aside from the opening chapter about his decision to quit drinking, the book is not chronologically ordered. Bush mixes topics as needed to tell a larger story than a simple history of his administration. Certain themes dominate the narrative: the all-encompassing importance of 9/11 to the bulk of his presidency, and how it shaped and shadowed almost everything he did; the importance of his faith, which is echoed in every chapter and which comes through in an unassuming manner; the often unseen advisor whom the president conferred with and confided in on almost every subject—his wife, Laura Bush; and the wide array of people who helped him rise to the White House and then often hindered him once he was there. The book is worthwhile for many reasons. Even if many readers may not agree with his views on the subjects, Bush’s memories of 9/11, Hurricane Katrina and other major events are riveting and of historical value on their own. Additionally, Bush provides insight into the daily life of the president. The author accepts blame for a number of mistakes and misjudgments, while also standing up for decisions he felt were right.
Honest, of course, but also surprisingly approachable and engaging.Pub Date: Nov. 9, 2010
ISBN: 978-0-307-59061-9
Page Count: 512
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: Dec. 23, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2010
BOOK REVIEW
A fully captivating memoir rich with insights on reading, writing, and life itself.
The acclaimed author muses on personal events and reading experiences that have uniquely shaped his writing and outlook on life.
With his inimitable wit and candor, Handler, aka Lemony Snicket, crafts an exceptionally companionable memoir sure to delight and perhaps even challenge both existing fans and readers new to his work. The author vividly recounts a diverse array of experiences, from seemingly random occurrences to deeply personal moments—e.g., a troubling incident of childhood sexual assault at a museum and a succession of debilitating seizures in his youth. He constructs a subtly, even slyly instructive manual on living an unapologetic, fruitful existence. Interwoven with Handler’s memories are considerations of some of the writers who have influenced his work, such as Nabokov, Baudelaire, Elizabeth Bishop, and Roald Dahl. These are equally matched by pop-culture influences such as the films Attack of the 50 Foot Woman (“a bad movie”) and Plan 9 from Outer Space (“a famously terrible movie”). In trying to explain how inspiration arrives, the author serves up a uniquely eccentric template: “Little bits from all over the place, mostly literature—scurry into my mind and I scurry after them. They are not original ideas—not because they are not original, although of course they aren’t; it’s because they’re not ideas. Not yet. In the beginning they are just things.” Finally, Handler deftly confronts recent literary issues, specifically censorship and a gnawing tendency to admonish “problematic” authors. His keen insights cut through the controversies, and he delivers a blunt summation: “Books are like people in this way. And if you find yourself feeling that the book is problematic, all that means is that you have a problem with it, and that’s easily solved. Leave the book behind…and go home.”
A fully captivating memoir rich with insights on reading, writing, and life itself.Pub Date: May 21, 2024
ISBN: 9781324090601
Page Count: 240
Publisher: Liveright/Norton
Review Posted Online: Feb. 28, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2024
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