A Fine Line
Author Kate Stover
"Reading is the creative center of a writer's life." -- Stephen King
A Fine Line - "Reading is the creative center of a writer's life."  -- Stephen King
“I’ve always been interested in that quote without believing a word of it.”

A Review of “Intimations” in 100 Words by Catherine Stover

This book is not for those who like to keep things simple. Zadie Smith is curious, she asks questions, and she zigzags her way through ideas to explore multiple perspectives. Her great talent is to do this while being relatable. She writes, “The final straw came just a few weeks ago, while I was washing up.” While she discusses the history of underfunded public education, we never lose sight of her kitchen sink, or her dishes, or her way of making sense of a complex situation. Reviewers call her writing beautiful and brilliant. I would add enjoyable to this list.

Work Cited:

Smith, Zadie. Intimations. Penguin Books, 2020, p. 3.

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“It would be the easiest thing in the world to lose everything.”

A Review of “Small Thing Like These” in 100 Words by Catherine Stover

This quote expresses the tension in Small Things Like These, which is about the terrible choice the Irish coal merchant, Furlong, must make between self-preservation and self-respect. Either way, he stands a chance to lose something important. The setting for Furlong’s dilemma — a shed where coal is stored — happens to be owned and operated through a partnership between the Catholic Church and the Irish government. This powerful novel, which won the Orwell Prize for Political Fiction, shows how institutions can fail the people they serve. For days after reading it, I thought about the consequences of Furlong’s choice.

Work Cited:

Keegan, Claire. Small Things Like These. Faber, 2021, p. p.12

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“The past is never dead. It’s not even past.”

A review of “Requiem for a Nun” in 100 words by Catherine Stover

This is one of my favorite lines in American literature. It’s blunt and clear, even though it’s from a book that is neither blunt nor clear. Reading Requiem for a Nun requires participating in an experiment. It seems that William Faulkner wanted to see what would happen if he wrote the history of three buildings in old town, and in the same book, wrote a three-act play about characters from a previous novel. Then he intersperses the history with the play, even though they have nothing to do with each other. If you like challenging experiments, you’ll enjoy this book.

Citation:

Faulkner, William. Requiem for a Nun. Vintage Books, 1954, p. 73.

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“I didn’t feel the same unwavering love for anyone else.”

A review of “Cat and Bird” in 100 words by Catherine Stover

When Kyoko Mori writes about her love for her cats and birds, she doesn’t hold back. Her devotion is unquestionably…well…obsessive. It’s tempting to see her in that light only. However, in an interview, Mori says this, “I think anybody who reads should understand that the most fundamental thing about writing is that the persona in the book is not all of who you are.” She adds, “It’s like a part of who you are, strengthened many times.” Her stories about her animals provides a framework for telling us her own story, which includes childhood trauma. Skillfully, Mori reveals her multidimensionality.

Citation:

Mori, Kyoko. Cat and Bird: a memoir. Belt Publishing, 2024, p. 31.

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Why read Alice Munro?

In the weeks since Alice Munro’s death, I’ve been thinking about this paradox: While she won the Nobel Prize and the highest respect of reviewers, she never won the hearts of the mass market audience. Why? Hmmm . . . should we start by thinking about the reasons we are drawn to stories? I would like to propose a taxonomy of the reasons to read stories. Knowing that teachers have used Bloom’s Taxonomy of Educational Objectives since the 1950s, wouldn’t it be great if we had a similar tool to use when discussing why we read stories? Tell me what you think!

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“Writing the memoir is in some ways like keeping one’s balance atop a narrow fence.”

A Review of “Find Your Story, Write Your Memoir” in 100 Words by Catherine Stover

Memoirists have to strike a difficult balance while attempting to meet two goals. Their first goal is to tell us about something that happened in their past by taking us back to the way life was then. Their second goal is to reflect on what they have learned since then. They might conclude, for example, that they wish that they could have known then what they know now. Readers see how perspectives can change over time. The authors of this book believe that this dance between the past and the present is what makes memoirs unique – and, potentially, transformative.

Citation:

Miller, Lynn and Lisa Lenard-Cook. Find Your Story, Write Your Memoir. University of Wisconsin Press, 2013, p. 7.

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“Every story has a moral, Doherty used to say, but most have more than two.”

Here is what I love about the pieces in this book: they are designed to surprise the reader. The stories build to not just one revelation, but often several. And they are sneaky. The last sentence of the last story made me gasp out loud. Because it was written with a light touch and an entertaining bent, I read it quickly. Now, going back more carefully, I can see the excellent architecture, the design which was invisible initially. Critics call this book “superb” and a “knockout.” It is that rare book that is even more pleasurable the second time through.

Towles, Amor. Table for Two: Fictions. Viking, 2022, p. 397.

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“When I was 4 months pregnant and suffering from morning sickness, I was . . . thrown into a filthy, windowless, smelly horse stall.”

Satsuki Ina’s memoir includes excerpts from her parents’ letters from the years they were imprisoned during WW II in a so-called “relocation center” for American citizens who had Japanese ancestors. Her parents never talked about it. While Ina knew that she was born in a prison, she didn’t know how brutal the conditions were until she read her parents’ papers after they died. This information helped her understand why her family had lived in fear of authority figures. Ina, who is a psychotherapist, decided to reveal her family’s history because she believes that sharing stories can help heal ancestral wounds.

Ina, Satsuki. The Poet and the Silk Girl: A Memoir of Love, Imprisonment, and Protest. Heyday, 2024, p. 248.

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“Think mystery, not mastery.”

Have you ever gotten stuck when working on a creative project? What do you do when your work grinds to a halt? Here’s an idea: spend 10 or 15 minutes every morning doing a type of meditation where you write down whatever is going through your mind. Don’t judge. Don’t punctuate. Just record your thoughts without stopping until you have written three pages. Let your ideas rise to the surface. The goal is to witness and articulate the mystery, not to control your mind. This book described this technique in 1992, and it continues to be rediscovered by new generations.

Cameron, Julia. The Artist’s Way: A Spiritual Path to Higher Creativity. Putnam, 1992, p. 21.

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“I’ve sometimes wondered whether novelists like to be remembered for what they’ve said or because they’ve said it in their own particular way – in their own distinctive voice.”

In 1978, the BBC invited Barbara Pym to be a guest on its program where well-known writers discussed their work. Her views on the “distinctive voice” of a writer was of particular interest: in the 1960s, her publisher declined her seventh novel because he said her style was “old fashioned.” Fourteen years later, an article in the Times Literary Supplement reignited interest in her work. Her popularity soared. Her distinctive voice – humorous and melancholy, luminous and open – was in demand. Writers, take heart. Sometimes, great work is rediscovered and cherished. Pym’s books are more popular now than during her lifetime.

Pym, Barbara. Civil to Strangers and Other Writings. Virago, 2011, p. 377.

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“You have to give yourself the space to write a lot without a destination.”

After winning the UK’s most prestigious writing award, this Irish novelist was asked which books had influenced her most. She said she loved Writing Down the Bones because it told her to “just have a go and see what comes out.” This 30-year-old book still sells 30.000 copies a year. Why? Perhaps because it’s pure Zen. The author studied with a Zen master for 10 years before writing the book. So, she recommends letting your imagination do its work without judgement and direction. Trust the process. Write every day. Tell the truth. Listen. Trust yourself. Who wouldn’t love this book?

Goldberg, Natalie. Writing Done the Bones: Freeing the Writer Within. Shambhala: 2016, p. 11.

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“I don’t think you’re dying, ” I said. “I think you’ve just got a touch of cancer.”

What’s the hardest book to write successfully? For me, it would be a novel about teenagers who have cancer, fall in love, and then die. The challenges include: creating a page-turner (even though the readers know how it will end), having the characters be interesting but not unrealistically heroic, using a complicated tone that is a blend of melancholy, sweet, philosophical and funny, making it appeal to adults (even though it’s about teenagers), and elevating the theme by using a line from Shakespeare that is poignant and accessible. John Green met these challenges, and this wonderful book sold 23 million copies.

Green, John. The Fault in Our Stars. Penguin Books, 2012, p. 217.

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“Show me yourself.”

Anna Quindlen says that when Barry Jenkins was filming The Underground Railroad, he directed the actors to “Show me yourselves.” In other words, don’t act. Similarly, Quindlen recommends doing the kind of writing where you don’t posture for an audience. Just write the truth. Privately. For yourself. This is a rare book about writing that doesn’t aim to help you write something you can sell. Rather, it encourages you to “write for your life.” Engage in reflection that can lead to understanding or transformation. The point, she says, is to “reveal what lies within.” Give this gift to yourself.

Quindlen, Anna. Write for Your Life. Random House, 2022, p. 31.

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“When people write reviews, they are really writing a kind of memoir – here’s what my experience was eating at this restaurant or getting my hair cut at this barbershop.”

Is this book a memoir? The title – The Anthropocene Reviewed and the subtitle Essays on a Human-Centered Planet — offer no clues. However, in the introduction, the author says that he wants to tell us stories about his life so that we can see how he has formed his opinions. The titles of his essays – Diet Dr. Pepper, Velociraptors, Sunsets – tell us his topics, but not his subject. His subject is how he experiences and then interprets these things. So, yes, this is a type of memoir because we get to know the author. I find his creative candor entirely appealing.

Green, John. The Anthropocene Reviewed: Essays on a Human-Centered Planet. Dutton, 2021, pp. 5-6.

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“In 1848 William and Ellen Craft, an enslaved couple in Georgia, embarked on a five-thousand-mile journey of mutual self-emancipation across the world.”

How does a writer create suspense when the outcome of the real-life story is already known? This book excels at keeping readers at the edge of their seats. How? Woo did a “staggering amount” of research to learn the sensory details of the way things felt, smelled, sounded, looked, and tasted. We care about what happens to William and Ellen because they are real to us. We see that at any moment, the story might have ended differently. In fact, they did experience their share of loss, even in the final pages of their story. This book is unforgettable.

Woo, Ilyon. Master Slave Husband Wife: An Epic Journey from Slavery to Freedom. Simon & Schuster, 2023, p.1.

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