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amyhdavis's review against another edition
4.0
This is a great memoir on marriage. Concise, poignant and insightful. I am generally not one to re-read books, but I feel like I would likely pick this up again.
an_enthusiastic_reader's review against another edition
4.0
This is a memoir about time and marriage. About how people at the beginnings of their union hope and dream, and how realities of life sink in as time is distorted and compressed. If you're in the mood for moody and melancholy and truth, this might be for you. I don't know that I'd relate to it as I have if I hadn't myself been in a marriage that's lasted my entire adult life. What that 20-year-old woman (girl?) couldn't foresee upon getting married is everything that has shaped me since, all the good and certainly all the bad.
sregitnig's review against another edition
3.0
I really like Shapiro's writing style but this memoir is pointed to a very specific audience (people in a long-term marriage) and I didn't feel like I could connect in the way I was meant to.
book_beat's review against another edition
5.0
“For a brief breathtaking moment, I feel completely whole. I understand that I am composed of many selves that make up a single chorus. To listen to the music this chorus makes, to recognize it as music, as something noble, varied, patterned, sublime — that is the work of a lifetime.”
Dani Shapiro's "Hourglass" memoir is a 145 page stream of consciousness novel focused around her marriage, family, work, memory, and the passing of time. In one snapshot, Shapiro describes viewing a pile of photographs from a lifetime: disorganized, flipping through a slide show, watching, mesmerized. “Hourglass” reads like this: a disorganized glimpse at a life. This feeling of “disorganization” is hard to achieve in such an effortless way. Hopping from memory to memory, Shapiro captures how one whole person reacts and feels and processes a full life, joined with another.
Dani Shapiro's "Hourglass" memoir is a 145 page stream of consciousness novel focused around her marriage, family, work, memory, and the passing of time. In one snapshot, Shapiro describes viewing a pile of photographs from a lifetime: disorganized, flipping through a slide show, watching, mesmerized. “Hourglass” reads like this: a disorganized glimpse at a life. This feeling of “disorganization” is hard to achieve in such an effortless way. Hopping from memory to memory, Shapiro captures how one whole person reacts and feels and processes a full life, joined with another.
notrachel's review against another edition
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 against another edition
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.
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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 against another edition
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.
lilyellyn's review against another edition
4.0
Beautiful reflections on, well, time, memory, and marriage.