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notrachel's review
5.0
Her memoirs are so fine. I've already read this 1.5 times. It's fitting that I needed to get a new commonplace book before starting this. I love that I have a name now for the little book of quotes I've picked up from books/conversations over the years.
bookalong's review
3.0
In Hourglass Dani Shapiro recounts moments of her life in this memoir about choices, relationships, marriage, life and time.
This is a short read only 150 pages with no chapter breaks. I hadn't read anything by this author before and did enjoy her writing. It reminded me of Joan Didion's at times....who I am a big fan of.
She examines her 18 year marriage. Remembering the girl she used to be before and the woman she is now. Her career and the ups and downs of being a writer married to a writer. She recounts having her son and watching him grow. And how she looks back on all the memories of her life now.
There are beautifully written passages that I really enjoyed but at times I did find it dragged on a bit and fell flat. Even though she writes about subjects that many people can relate to.
Her writing is beautiful though. I would definitely read more from her.
For more of my book content check out
instagram.com/bookalong
This is a short read only 150 pages with no chapter breaks. I hadn't read anything by this author before and did enjoy her writing. It reminded me of Joan Didion's at times....who I am a big fan of.
She examines her 18 year marriage. Remembering the girl she used to be before and the woman she is now. Her career and the ups and downs of being a writer married to a writer. She recounts having her son and watching him grow. And how she looks back on all the memories of her life now.
There are beautifully written passages that I really enjoyed but at times I did find it dragged on a bit and fell flat. Even though she writes about subjects that many people can relate to.
Her writing is beautiful though. I would definitely read more from her.
For more of my book content check out
instagram.com/bookalong
jesabesblog's review
3.0
This didn't click with me. I can see how people with a personality that matches Shapiro's might find it moving and inspiring. There were a few quotes she includes I loved - like on page 102, quoting an unnamed book: "Rabbi Zusya said, 'In the coming world, they will not ask me: "Why were you not Moses?" They will ask me: "Why were you not Zusya?"'" (Goodreads tells me the author was [a:Martin Buber|29357|Martin Buber|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1256658831p2/29357.jpg].)
Overall, though, it was the tone of the book that didn't land with me. Too ethereal and fragmented.
Overall, though, it was the tone of the book that didn't land with me. Too ethereal and fragmented.
jenniecanzoneri's review
4.0
I love a quick book, with lovely prose. And I appreciated the reminder that a quiet marriage, with its ordinary and boring flaws, is a work of art.
clairewords's review
3.0
I've not read any of her previous works, this was a book passed to me by a friend, so not a book I deliberately chose. I enjoyed reading it, though I couldn't say I related to it in any way. As the title shows, it's a reflection on time passing, on memory and on marriage.
It's full of nostalgia for moments passed, brought back to life as she picks up journals from girlhood and her earlier life and quotes from them, in particular, from her honeymoon spent in France. She wonders about the woman she was then.
She worries about the lack of a plan, despite being in her fifties and her husband almost sixty. She shares these anxious moments, as she begins to lose a little faith in the words her husband has uttered in the past, that gave her reasurrance "I"ll take care of it". Anyone who has ever lived with that kind of reassurance might relate, but inherent within that is a deep vulnerability, a fear of loss.
It's that undercurrent of misplaced fear that concerns me, for there is no resolution, there is no evidence of a desire to go within and face that fear, to heal it, she remains focused on that which is external, and therein lies the problem. Maybe that is the memoir still to come, when she embarks on the inner journey, and learns to listen to her own guidance, to the whispers of her soul, that can reassure her more than anyone or anything on the outside.
It's full of nostalgia for moments passed, brought back to life as she picks up journals from girlhood and her earlier life and quotes from them, in particular, from her honeymoon spent in France. She wonders about the woman she was then.
She worries about the lack of a plan, despite being in her fifties and her husband almost sixty. She shares these anxious moments, as she begins to lose a little faith in the words her husband has uttered in the past, that gave her reasurrance "I"ll take care of it". Anyone who has ever lived with that kind of reassurance might relate, but inherent within that is a deep vulnerability, a fear of loss.
It's that undercurrent of misplaced fear that concerns me, for there is no resolution, there is no evidence of a desire to go within and face that fear, to heal it, she remains focused on that which is external, and therein lies the problem. Maybe that is the memoir still to come, when she embarks on the inner journey, and learns to listen to her own guidance, to the whispers of her soul, that can reassure her more than anyone or anything on the outside.
bethanyaball's review
5.0
A lovely meditation on memory, marriage, and time. She is thoughtful and honest and if I have time I'll get to her next kripalu offering because the last time I went it was magical.