A review by chelseamartinez
The Folded Clock: A Diary by Heidi Julavits

3.0

Probably because of the pretty cover (which attracted me to it, too), a lot of people asked me about this book while I was reading it over the past few days. They wanted to know if it was an old book because of the textile-like pattern. I explained that it was someone's diary, over two years, polished, chopped, and scrambled. I explained that the author, because she is a writer, lives in a lot of different places for big chunks of the year; in this case, mostly Maine, New York, and the suburbs of Berlin. This still didn't explain the diary part, so at one point I said "But still, it's a modern diary, and there are multiple entries about buying stuff on eBay." Which did get something across.
Ben Marcus is the author's husband, and they do have something in their style in common, though instead of the creepy anxiousness I remember from his books, there is instead a GOOP-style advocacy for various consumer products, and for the "hard" life of a writer, and for Maine where the author grew up, longed to escape, and now returns to every summer. She does at one point mention Gwyneth Paltrow, but in contrast to herself, in talking about going to college and encountering rich WASPs, who she had not encountered before, but who now also inhabit the Maine of her adulthood as well (who were maybe always there? I think that is what she means when she talks about heritage families but that joke is still a bit out of my reach).
Diary entries I got the most out of: September 5, April 19, October 10, October 15, August 14.