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Sarah Hepola shares her harrowing escapades as a blackout drinker in this unforgettable memoir. She yanks you into her checkered drinking history from the get go. The opening scene has her in Paris on a magazine assignment, out drinking with a friend. She writes about returning to the hotel, walking through the lobby and how, then, the lights of her memory go out.
Until she wakes up the next morning in the middle of having sex with a complete stranger.
Read moreThis book is not for everyone. For me though, it was beautiful. Beautiful in its gutted heart and soul, its raw emotion, its incredibly precise writing, and its palpable heart ache. And its truth, according to David Payne in his recent memoir, Barefoot to Avalon: A Brother’s Story. It’s Payne’s story and his brother’s of growing up with an angry, alcoholic father, of playing favorites, and not being able to speak the truth. It’s of Payne’s brother, George A., with mental illness, his tragic death, and Payne’s own manic struggle to leave behind, then reconcile his family ties.
The book is dark. This is Payne’s therapeutic release from the guilt he has around his brother - not just his death, but in his life, diagnosed with bipolar disorder and having had several psychotic breakdowns. George A., as Payne describes wins by losing. That is, he gains the affection and attention of his divorced parents; attention Payne feels cheated of. Yet George A. earns this by breaking down. We see the brothers converge at family events and holidays, yet fade from each other’s lives in their separation, becoming two very different individuals - financial broker versus writer; conservative versus liberal; encircled by family versus trying to escape the family he was born into.
Read moreThere are books I love; that leave their mark. But there are few that are so impactful that I feel the need to reread again and again. I’m not sure what compelled me to select The Odd Woman and the City, as I was not familiar with Vivian Gornick’s work, but I am so happy I did.
Gornick is a New Yorker through and through. She’s lived there all her life and has embraced its darkness, beauty and eccentricities. She has found her own rhythm in a city that hums along with or without you - either you’re on board for an incredible ride or you can’t wait to get off the wheel. In her memoir, which is a series of brief essays, Gornick replays for us conversations she has overheard while walking the streets of New York - some laugh-out-loud funny delivered with quirky banality; though the majority of her essays and musings focuses on her perspective of friendships, lovers and life itself. Gornick is able to dig deep to bring clarity to emotions, and articulate these feelings with such meticulous language I found myself rereading passages just for the enjoyment of the flow.
I loved this book not only for the clarity of her prose, but for her acute self-awareness and the precision with which I was able to identify with many of the essays. I felt epiphanies throughout; Gornick my analyst as I lay on my own sofa clutching the book and saying, “yes; I see it now!” Gornick delivers her story with keen observation, often referring to her close relationship with her friend Leonard who helps bring her (and us) to a better understanding of human nature.
Gornick was a journalist with the Village Voice in the 1970’s and has written for The New York Times, The Atlantic and numerous other publications. I’ll be picking up another one of her books soon.
Published: 2015
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Vickie’s rating: 5 stars
Many of us take a meandering path through life, unsure of the next step or even the goal. Author Philip Connors has honestly exposed with us his own life’s twisty trail. In his memoir All The Wrong Places: A Life Lost and Found, Connors has chronicled a series of experiences focusing on pivotal stages in his life. Though each chapter centers upon a different aspect, the common thread throughout is his brother’s death, and the burden of culpability he must finally address.
Connors worked in journalism, first as an intern for The Nation, then the copy desk of the Wall Street Journal. He relays his story through that journalistic lens - with writing that is eloquent, thoughtful, direct and emotional, yet matter-of-fact. So we read of the tumult and anxiety he experiences, but don’t become entrenched in the sentiment. It’s a work of sensitive, authentic and articulate writing that resonated with me. In describing his move to the Gila wilderness in New Mexico late in the book he writes, “The place tore me down and remade me; its indifference to my cares and sorrows was magisterial and, in unexpected ways, comforting. I had believed that the streets of New York were the pinnacle of indifference to the individual human life and I had been mistaken.”
Read moreKnowing Rob Lowe as the gorgeous Brat Pack bad boy with a sex tape that almost derailed his career, I began Love Life, Lowe’s most recent autobiography, with low expectations. But this book changed my mind entirely. Intellectual, insightful and funny, Lowe uses his life experiences to give his reader tips for living a fuller and richer life and shows how he’s managed to navigate the Hollywood world with his family, mind and sobriety in tact.
Lowe relishes in the successes of his career but is also quick to point out the one offs. Turning down the role of Dr. Derek Shepard on Grey’s Anatomy to star on a show that was cancelled almost immediately might seem a failure to most. But to Lowe, it was a learning experience that positioned him for the next right role; a nine year stint on Parks & Recreation as the consummate optimist, Chris Trager.
Emphasizing the significance he places on being a dad and crediting his wife for his biggest successes in life, he shows his true heart lies with his family. His chapter about taking his eldest son to college will leave you teary eyed.
Meanwhile, his anecdotes about his first trip to the Playboy Mansion, his beyond awkward ‘love scene’ with Jewel and his off screen antics with Matt Damon on the set of Behind the Candelabra are laugh out loud funny.
Lowe is not without a touch of arrogance about his successes in show biz but, seriously, would we expect any different from a man who truly seems to get better looking with age? He also had me writing down some of his sayings in my journal, poignant to the last page. “Be creative in adding drama and scope to your life,” he says, and through his prose demonstrated he did just that for himself.
Published: 2015
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Elizabeth's Rating: 4 Stars
Always interested in government, politics and current affairs, I typically stick with reading the news and do some online research versus reading biographies. However, the memoir Outpost: Life on the Frontlines of American Diplomacy caught my eye and after reading a few early reviews, I had to read it. It was a good choice.
Former Ambassador Christopher Hill first arrived on my radar screen when he led the Six Party Talks in an attempt to bring an end to North Korean nuclear weapon production. In addition to the U.S., the effort included Japan, China, Russia, South Korea and North Korea, and Hill was picking up where his predecessor left off. Nothing is easy with the N. Koreans, and Hill’s work was cut out for him. But not just with the Pyongyang - working with the other countries had its own challenges. Oh, and there is our own government — no easy task there either.
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