Mothering Memoirs Overdose


Too much of a good thing?

Enjoyed Ayun Halliday's Big Rumpus and Marion Winik's Lunchbox Chronicles but have this vision of a recovery group one day for adults whose every bowel movement was extolled and published by their mothers. Imagine the confessionals "Hi, my name's Sam, and after my mother published an argument we had when I was fifteen in a prominent on-line magazine, I decided I had to get even by doing something she couldn't write about..." So I took a break from agonizing over people who are insensitive to the parenting choices we all have to make and dove into Donna Tartt's The Secret History, which was what I'd wanted all of Highsmith's Talented Mr. Ripley books to be. Set in a small Vermont college among classics scholars, it made me want to dig out my Greek lexicon and jump into heady translations. Not that the pile of books next to my bed has gotten any smaller, mind you...

Posted: Sat - August 16, 2003 at 06:30 PM      

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