Word: memoirs
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...interest in a memoir, especially a good one like Tobias Wolff's This Boy's Life, is voice-activated. It's not so much the tale as the teller, the tone he takes about himself, what he makes out of past experience, that seizes and holds our attention. It follows that an autobiography is not the ideal foundation for a movie; the two forms are antithetical. It also follows that This Boy's Life, though seriously meant and conscientiously made, doesn't quite work...
...many, the decadence and frivolity of the Reagan 80's crumbled with the onslaught of HIV and AIDS. Gary Indiana's latest novel, Gone Tomorrow, recounts one version of this collision. As a memoir on the early 80s and a reflection on the advent of AIDS, Indiana tells the story of the Paul Grosvenor, the central player in a configuration of international characters reminiscent of Warhol's Factory. As a German avant-garde director, Paul orchestrates the drama both on and off film; his position is central to the novel's intricate and complex web. Gone Tomorrow is a remembrance...
...discount his only other published work, Kentucky Straight. In that collection of short fiction. Offutt shamelessly sold out his Kentucky heritage to Random. House. After slogging through the nine stories in the Paw-dun-hung-himself-with-his-belt vein. I was dreading the two hundred pages of memoir that make up. The Same River Twice. But Offutt has tired of Flogging the dead horse of his homeland, and has produced as intelligent and enthralling account of his journey across America and towards fatherhood...
...memoir cleverly intersperses the narrative of Offutt's wife's pregnancy with the sordid anecdotes of his youth. He sets his fifteen years of wandering against the nine months of expectancy, illustrating the transformation from carefree adventurer to father with well-ordered contrast. The father-to-be balks at the notion of parental responsibility, just as his youthful self fled from the restraints of any long-term career or romance...
Offutt blends wit, compassion and insight to make this memoir a much more palatable brew than the crude Kentucky Straight. At its heart, The Same River Twice is touchingly human. Offutt's honest, self- effacing style seduces the reader with its openness. Twenty-five centuries ago, Heraclitus asserted that you cannot step into the same river twice. Offutt, too immerses himself in the old conundrum of change and decay. His story springs from time-honored tradition and flows it course with a river's enchanting elegance...