Tayari's Blog: Long Form Links

Posted by TayariJones on June 10, 2008 01:29 PM
Filed under Travels & Rambles

  • Writers are getting tired of having to crank out a book a year. Highlight: This quote from Dennis LeHane--"Then they asked me to turn a book around in a year ... I did it, but the week it was published I realized what would have made it a really good book. The anger of that realization haunted me. I said I would never go back on that hamster wheel."
  • Salon has some pretty thoughtful commentary on the Alice/Rebecca Walker situation. Highlight: "The children of greatly talented public figures, as Alice surely is, are often sacrificed to the Great Work. The children can barely breathe in the shadow of -- usually it's the Great Man; in this case, it's the Great Woman. However, great men are allowed every excess and failure; great women are never forgiven for making a single mistake. "
  • Erika talks about how she "gets it all done." The highlight: Learning to say NO.
  • Got books you need to get rid of, but are too good to throw away? You can donate them to charity. The highlight: depending on where you live, they will pick them up at your house!
  • Want to write your life story, but aren't sure that it hasn't already been done? EW presents one sentence summaries of about 100 contemporary memoirs. Highlight: Friends of the blog like Janice Earlbaum and Rigoberto Gonzalez are included! Lowlight: Why are all the books by African-Americans filed under "racial identity"???

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    There are 3 comments on "Long Form Links". If you'd like to leave a comment, click here to jump down to the comments entry form.

    Comment #1, by Michael Fischer [TypeKey Profile Page]

    I can't really put my finger on why, but this quote (in the EW article about memoirs) bothers me:

    "''The bar keeps going higher,'' says Sara Nelson, editor in chief of Publishers Weekly. ''Well, you were a drug addict, but did you kill anybody? Well, you killed somebody, but did you do it with your bare hands? Well, you were hungry, but were you as hungry as Frank McCourt? The more that's written, the harder it is to come up with something new or dramatic to say.''

    June 10, 2008 02:35 PM

    Comment #2, by Jackie [TypeKey Profile Page]

    I saw that article on Salon about Rebecca Walker and I also followed the link to her latest essay about her mother. As a mother, I feel that Rebecca is indeed whiney and punitive, as if doing so will make her mother drop to her knees and give her what she believes she didn't get as a child. I was surprised when I read her first memoir that AW was neglectful during RW's formative years, but as more of RW's story comes out, I have adjusted my opinion.

    We mothers do the best we can. Sometimes we get it right and sometimes we get it wrong. When we look back at our own mothers, who among us can say everything was perfect? Yet we don't routinely throw our mothers under a moving bus. We make peace so that we can all work on the relationship in the present moment.

    RW, is throwing a hissy fit in public, seemingly to get her mother to react. After everything I have read about this tenacious relationship, I felt tired. I, too, would have resigned from the job of being her mother. It sounds exhausting and never enough.

    Yeah, I wrote that.

    I love my son, but there are times when we both step back and take a breath. We get it figured out and then move forward again. I would never resign from being his mother (although there are days when it seems like a good idea) because we have been fortunate in being truthful with each other, even when it hurts. Sometimes you have to walk through the pain to get to the other side.

    I say good luck to you RW and see you in about 20 years when your son is old enough to tell you how imperfect you were as a mother. Hopefully, AW will still be alive and willing to be amused by your new revelations.

    The most telling observation in the comments section was that Rebecca chooses to use her mother's last name, not her father's, because who would even be interested in the story if the last name was Leventhal?

    June 10, 2008 03:18 PM

    Comment #3, by carleen [TypeKey Profile Page]

    More power to those who can write a book a week or whatever, but it ain't in me no matter what Elmore Leonard said.

    June 14, 2008 07:31 PM

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