Word: memoirs
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...what few knew until her revelation this year is that Jamison has suffered from manic depression for more than 30 years. Now Jamison is publishing a memoir that chronicles her odyssey from painful mental chaos to an uneasy psychic peace. Written with poetic and moving sensitivity, An Unquiet Mind (Knopf; $22) is a rare and insight ful view of mental illness from inside the mind of a trained specialist...
...first volume of excerpts from this work in progress, called A Diary of the Century (Kodansha; 578 pages; $25), proposes, "There are human beings not yet born who will be helped in understanding our times through the diaries of Edward Robb Ellis." Far more than a personal memoir, the diaries record practically everything Ellis said, did, thought, felt, read or saw, accompanied by copies of newspaper stories he wrote as well as letters he sent and received. This glorious mishmash constitutes an informal history of 20th century America by an inquisitive writer who interviewed everyone from Harry Truman to Irving...
...memoir is structured around the transformation of Cantwell from her small-town-Rhode-Island-reared self, to a University of Connecticut graduate thrust into the roar of a city that in 1953 welcomed her with open arms. Cantwell begins each section of the book with a new apartment, and a new segment of her New York existence...
Cantwell goes from an entry level position at Mademoiselle, to copy editor at Vogue, to managing editor at Mademoiselle, and finally to the editorial board of the New York Times. As she climbs the ladder of the publishing world her memoir brings us along to fashion shows, to Paris and Jerusalem on business, to consciousness raising groups in the '60s and religious fanatic retreats in the '70s. It is a whirlwind trip, which Cantwell successfully carries on with compelling insights into her own life, and the society that surrounds...
Cantwell's candor--her open honesty letting us become party to the most intimate details of her life, hopes and dreams--makes her life emerge with a wonderful fullness. The problem with the memoir, and with Cantwell's own life, is her marriage. It is described from a postdivorce viewpoint and is thus colored throughout as a negative relationship. From the start we await its collapse and wondering at Cantwell's constancy. And unfortunately Cantwell is unable to carry her memoir much beyond her ruined marriage. She succumbs to the plague of so many women's autobiographies, not exploring...