Author Archive
“Another memoir?” my husband responded when he asked me what I was reading and I answered the same way I often do . Yes, it’s true. I can’t seem to get enough of these true stories of coming of age, falling in love, heartbreak, despair, addiction, and every other wonderful or horrible thing that happens every day to regular people. Happens Every Day: An All-Too-True story is no great departure from the tried-and-true formula for memoirs of heartbreak: seemingly perfect life, perhaps a few cracks in the relationship or signs of trouble, followed by a shocking discovery/confession.
Author Isabel Gillies does lead a seemingly perfect life. She and her family have recently moved into a beautiful, old house in Oberlin, Ohio where her husband is a poetry professor. Gillies starts a part-time teaching job in the theatre department, oversees renovations on her old home, and is a full-time mother of two young boys. Her perfect life is turned upside-down when her husband abruptly announces that he no longer wants to be married to her. Gillies is not only shocked and heartbroken but also completely unwilling and certainly not ready to end her marriage. She attempts to work things out with her husband, but it’s clear very early on that he doesn’t want to be married… at least, not to her.
Like Split: A Memoir of Divorce and I Loved, I Lost, I Made Spaghetti, two other engaging memoirs that deal with breakups and heartbreak, Happens Every Day is an enjoyable read first and foremost because Gillies knows how to get to the point. She may not be the greatest writer (in fact she was an actress first) but she manages to charmingly and succinctly describe her family, her marriage, her job, and her town in such a way that I truly was drawn to her story. Additionally she comletely manages to avoid self-pity and extreme negativity, a huge feat in itself. Finally, for those of you who prefer not to read a completely depressing memoir, this is the one for you!
October 9th, 2009
Mary - Lakeview
Michael Pollan’s recent bestseller The Omnivore’s Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals is one of those scary looking, thick nonfiction books. You
know the kind: you’re quite proud of yourself when you checkout or buy this big, hefty book because it’s going to make you smarter, but then it sits on your shelf, making you feel guilty and, let’s face it, kind of inferior because you just aren’t ambitious enough for your pleasure reading to become project reading. Worse yet, you put it on your coffee table to impress guests, but then must sheepishly admit that you haven’t started reading the darn thing when they ask you if it’s good. Well, I actually proved myself wrong this time and managed to read (and enjoy!) this big, fat nonfiction book, but if this practice sounds vaguely familiar to you perhaps you should try Pollan’s 
latest, In Defense of Food: An Eater’s Manifesto.
Published two years after The Omnivore’s Dilemma, In Defense of Food is a slim and succinct follow-up book. The Omnivore’s Dilemma is Pollan’s journey into the origins of our food. He takes the reader along for the ride as he uncovers exactly how four distinctly different meals came to be- from a McDonald’s meal, to a Whole Foods grocery run, to an old fashioned “hunting and gathering” meal, Pollan covers all bases as he describes exactly what it takes to make our food and exactly what is in our food. Turns out the answer is a lot of corn. Think of In Defense of Food as a nice companion piece to The Omnivore’s Dilemma. If you haven’t read Omnivore’s Dilemma, think of it as the abridged newer edition with answers!
If the first book presented the problem, then the second book offers a solution to the dilemma. The premise (or solution) of Pollan’s manifesto is simple: eat food, not too much, mostly plants. Sounds quite simple, but Pollan’s extensive research and convincing argument both prove that what sounds easy in theory might not be so easy in practice. For starters, food marketing is a multi-billion dollar industry and the average American’s definition of “healthy” food is deeply flawed since the advent of processed food and the advent of restrictive dieting (Atkins, low fat, no carbs, etc.) In addition, the manner in which we eat and our relationship with food has changed dramatically in the past few decades. Pollan argues that Americans often eat processed and packaged “food” alone and on-the-go rather than cooking a meal to share, slowly, with friends and family.
In the hands of another writer, the argument and solution could have easily come off as boring, too geeky, or difficult to understand. Pollan, however, is a gifted writer who understands the notion of too much information, yet never dumbs it down. His advice is practical and relatively easy: e.g. avoid food products that contain ingredients that are unpronounceable, eat well grown food from healthy soils, shop at farmers’ markets, cook and, if you can, plant a garden. If you want a condensed version of the manifeso, check out Pollan’s open letter to the next president, which was published in the New York Times magazine shortly before the presidential election.
Maybe I can handle the big, smart books after all… I think I’ll give Pollan’s Botany of Desire a try.
December 23rd, 2008
Mary - Lakeview
Anyone who has visited a library or bookstore in the last 10 years knows that memoirs have recently become a publishing phenomenon. Of course memoirs have always been around, but those of you who doubt the recent spike in popularity of this genre need only read Entertainment Weekly magazine’s nearly exhaustive list of memoirs published since 1995. I’ll readily admit that I’m addicted to memoirs: I’ve read everything from the super popular (Angela’s Ashes) to the quirky (Devil in the Details); from the can’t-put-it-down-because-it’s-that-good (A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius) to the just plain awful (Smashed: Story of a Drunken Girlhood). After a self-imposed three month break from reading memoirs, I finally fell off the wagon and started reading Madness: a Bipolar Life by Marya Hornbacher.
I’ve already read Hornbacher’s previous memoir Wasted about her battle to overcome anorexia and bulimia. Finally, one novel (The Center of Winter) and 10 years later, Hornbacher returns with an emotional yet humorous depiction of her life long struggle with mental illness. All the depressing elements are here: Addiction? Yes, Hornbacher describes her descent into alcoholism and anonymous sex as she self-medicates her mood swings. Body obsession? Yup, not just the aforementioned eating disorders but also self-mutilation in the form of cutting. Manic episodes and depressive states? Check and check. Just when you think it couldn’t get any worse, Hornbacher describes yet another hospitalization in the psychiatric ward.
So what compelled me to continue plowing through the seemingly never ending psychotic episodes and subsequent hospitalizations? For starters it was the glimpse into a disease that I truly don’t understand. Secondly, although Hornbacher comes across as a tad self absorbed (but really, how could you not be in her case?) her writing is witty and articulate. What could have been merely a seriously depressing memoir actually ends on a hopeful note as the author acknowledges that she will always struggle with her illness, but her family and friends (and her love story with her husband) help her through it all. This might not be the book that you’d read curled up by the fireplace over the holidays, but its still worth the time investment.
November 26th, 2008
Mary - Lakeview
