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4.14 AVERAGE
4.14 AVERAGE
Abigail Thomas is, quite simply, the bees knees. This memoir is simply written, an extremely speedy read, but a rewarding one. Thomas' understated take on the second wave ideal, that women should be telling the small stories of their lives as loudly and often as possible, ends up offering a compelling picture of a life played out through moments, not to mention a strong and unapologetic narrator who every girl can envy, or wish to have as a grandmother. Safekeeping is also cool because it completely bucks the Aristotelian ideal of story -- there is no plot, per se, although the book has a tightly constructed emotional arc. There's also no argument, and few clearly defined characters besides the narrator, although there is a great deal of poetry. Great, great book.
emotional
funny
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
emotional
funny
hopeful
reflective
relaxing
medium-paced
I just reread this and appreciated it all over again for its storytelling, and it’s building of story with brief, funny, thoughtful pieces. I mean, there’s some sadness, too, but Thomas has an unwavering spirit and pokes fun at herself, so a happy current runs through it all. As a writer, I love the creative freedom here: a story is only as long as it needs to be, may be written in first or third person, present or past tense, whatever it needs.
Such a good first read of the year. I have so many annotations from high school and it’s fun to see what sticks out to me now as opposed to when I was 18. Love this book
Tiny snippets of memory strung together into a memoir of sorts. I like the impressionistic structure. In fact, I was a little inspired by it because what I love to write are little memoiristic vignettes sometimes in the third person, and this is a highly acclaimed book made from just that. Though I started to feel sometimes that her technique functioned as a crutch keeping the author from having to sort out narrative problems. Another book I appreciated and admired, but could not fully embrace because I didn't care for the author/narrator.
This is a quick reading memoir. The chapters are anywhere from a paragraph to a page or two long. And I don’t know if I’d call it a “memoir” as much as it seems like just some random thoughts about her life. I chose it to read because I had enjoyed A Three Dog Life so much. Not so sure about this one. The writing is beautiful (parts of it), but I don’t feel like I got a real glimpse into her life.
I loved how the third person POV sections wove a fairy tale through the book, as well as how the conversations with the sister served as a meta-narrative. This would be a great book to use as a form model when teaching memoir/forms.
This is what inspired the style of my thesis. So simple and perfect and unique to Abigail Thomas.
emotional
reflective
medium-paced