Monthly Archives: September 2008

September 28, 2008

Review: ‘Memoir and the Memoirist’

The Memoir and the Memoirist: Reading and Writing Personal Narrative by Thomas Larson. Swallow Press. 211 pp. $11.53 As one who loves narrative (reading two essay collections in a row without discernable narrative makes me crazy for story) I found … Continue reading →

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Filed under evolutionary psychology, fiction, honesty, memoir, narrative, REVIEW

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September 18, 2008

The get

David Foster Wallace, who died last Friday at age 46, was a genius novelist whose brilliant, personal, reportage-rich essays were celestial events. His account of John McCain’s 2000 campaign in South Carolina against George W. Bush, collected in Consider the … Continue reading →

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Filed under existentialism, honesty, journalism, narrative, teaching

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September 14, 2008

Behind the barn

“Everyone’s a story,” my mother used to say. There’s always a story behind the story, too, but usually we don’t get it. However, I know the history of this barn for Obama, only the second so painted in all of … Continue reading →

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Filed under memoir, MY LIFE, narrative, politics, theme

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September 1, 2008

Deeper into meaning

Ian Frazier tells an amusing story in The New Yorker (May 26, 2008) about a man at a soup kitchen who dismissed Frazier’s credentials as a writing coach. The guy blew off Frazier, sitting at a card table soliciting for … Continue reading →

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Filed under metaphor, symbolism, teaching, theme

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