Tag Archives: Autobiography

Blood, Bones, and Butter: The Inadvertent Education of a Reluctant Chef by Gabrielle Hamilton

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Synopsis:
A memoir by the chef-owner of Prune in New York City’s East Village.

Review:
I loved Blood, Bones, and Butter, and not just because I have eaten at Prune. Gabrielle Hamilton’s memoir is more than just a restaurant tale–it’s an eyewitness account of the gentrification of both New York City, and of a street smart, fearless woman with a work ethic you just won’t believe.

My favorite section of the book was an extended musing on what it means to be a “woman chef.” Few people have articulated so well the dilemma of every woman working in a man’s world, expressing a simple desire for the game to just go away. In many ways, cooking is a pure meritocracy, but not enough people see it that way and still persist in playing the same games of gender politics. The food should be all that anyone talks about, yet women and men alike still want to rate one sex as superior to the other, by saying equally dumb thinks like “She’s a good woman chef” or “Women have superior palates.” Neither gets anybody anywhere.

It helps that Hamilton’s life is riveting. I thoroughly enjoyed this read and look forward to discussing it with my foodie friends.

Sheepish by Catherine Friend

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Synopsis:
Subtitled: “Two Women, Fifty Sheep, and Enough Wool to Save the Planet.”

Review:
Sheepish is simply adorable, a sweet memoir that will delight and please anyone who loves knitting, women, candor, humor, and sheep. There’s even a meditation on the environmental pros and cons of wool vs. artificial fibers. My only wish is that it came with patterns and pictures, but maybe someday she’ll feature some on her website.

The Foolishness of God by Ferenc Visky

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Synopsis:
The prison writings of Ferenc Visky, a Reformed minister who spent seven years in the Gherla prison after the 1956 Hungarian revolution.

Review:
“He who does not believe in miracles is not a realist.” The Foolishness of God is a slim volume packed with deep wisdom from a man who suffered more than most. Joy beams from every page, a hard-won thanksgiving for a God who justifies and sanctifies through mysterious ways. I love the irony that Ferenc Visky employs in showing how foolish our responses to suffering can seem, when our aim is to glorify God. I smiled and wept and loved every word, translated with care by Visky’s son, playwright Andras Visky.

In prison, Visky’s closest friend was Richard Wurmbrand, a converted Jew who became a Lutheran priest. Wurmbrand fearlessly embraced suffering his whole life, with a humor and passion that really inspired me. Here’s a brief glimpse:

Acceptance of suffering, taught Richard, gives power to endure.

When he was for years in solitary confinement, there was room for him to take just three steps for his daily walk. He would take only two, so as not to adapt his movements to the cell, to his want of freedom.

Please surf on over to Lulu.com and buy The Foolishness of God. I wish it were available more widely–it really deserves the deluxe treatment by a real publisher, with more of a biography on both Visky and Wurmbrand. This gem would be a great addition to any Christian library.

Addict at 10 by Derek Steele

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Synopsis:
How a youthful drug addict turned his life around thanks to the 12 Steps.

Review:
As memoirs go, Addict at 10 is pretty standard. The child of divorced partiers, Derek Steele gets drunk for the when he’s just 8 years old, and by high school he’s selling ecstasy and cocaine. The second half of the book details his recovery and sober life as a family man and successful business owner. If you like this template, then you’ll probably want to check this one out. It hits all the right inspiring notes. The writing isn’t great, but I’ve found that to be a hallmark of the genre, which is why I steer clear of most memoirs.

Undress Me in the Temple of Heaven by Susan Jane Gilman

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Synopsis:
Two college friends decide to circumnavigate the globe in 1986, starting in Communist China, unaware that one is on the brink of mental collapse.

Review:
I generally find memoirs to be self-indulgent, solipsistic, and narcissistic. Very rarely do the people with good stories also end up with the writing skills to engage the reader beyond the titillating details that sold the book proposal and turn their personal story into something that has actual resonance, meaning and importance.

Undress Me in the Temple of Heaven has a great story, but author Susan Jane Gilman has the literary chops to take readers beyond the merely therapeutic, telling what turns out to be a very big story about two very lost girls in one very confusing Communist country.

Plotwise, the book has an “Amazing Race” quality to it. Lots of deprivation, some racing around, squabbling between Susan and “Claire,” her traveling companion. There’s onscreen romance and offscreen sex, and hints of big drama to come on every page. That alone would make it a fun read, but Gilman invests her telling with a strong sense of history and place, as well as psychological perspicuity in her character building. It becomes clear very quickly that her primary goal is to tell a ripping good yarn. Too many memoirists forget this, becoming lost in a form of self-therapy. Gilman discusses her state of mind, but she’s quick to tie her emotional state into bigger questions of American and female identity. She’s not begging me to “relate” to her–she’s asking me to sit back and listen. And then she goes ahead and makes it very worth my while.

I totally want all my friends to read this book so we can talk about it. I was riveted by every page and weeping at the end. I loved it!

Scars and Stilettos by Harmony Dust

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Synopsis:
How an exotic dancer left the profession and founded a ministry to help other women do the same.

Review:
Harmony Dust’s story as told in Scars and Stilettos is not without merit. The girl has been through a lot, from childhood sexual abuse to rape to poverty, all of which led her to a soul-crushing career as an exotic dancer. I just wish that the writing had been a little stronger. Nevertheless, this is a powerful story and I hope it helps a lot of women like Harmony.

Many thanks to Monarch Books for the review copy.

Don’t Sleep There Are Snakes by Daniel L. Everett

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Synopsis:
The account of a missionary and linguist who has devoted his life to studying the language and culture of the Piraha in the Amazon, a people who have no numbers, colors, origin story, or perception of anything outside the immediate.

Review:
Don’t Sleep There Are Snakes is a fascinating first person account that looks at a culture that is so utterly alien to our own that it’s hard to believe we could ever have anything in common with them.

The Piraha people live in Brazil along the Amazon, and have an hermetically sealed culture that is seemingly impervious to outside influences, mainly because the Piraha believe themselves superior in every way to the rest of the world. In their discourse, they don’t reference anything outside the immediate, and have no words to reflect those sorts of concepts. For example, they don’t use numbers because counting something means that there could be more of a thing, but since the more isn’t right there then there is no more, therefore, no need to count. To put it another way, they use the word “all” indiscriminately. You can still have all of something even after giving part of it away. They don’t discuss the origin of the universe, nor does their cosmology include an afterlife.

This all proved to be fascinating to the author, Daniel L. Everett, as well as spiritually challenging. A linguist, Everett’s main task was to decode Piraha language so that he could translate the Bible for them. He ended up discovering that Piraha violates several key assumptions that linguists had always assumed to be inviolable, and his work revolutionized the field. However, because he was unable to use the Piraha language to explain Christianity to them, Everett came to lose his faith entirely. He ended up being converted to the Piraha’s pragmatism and immediacy.

I can definitely see how the Piraha way of life would present a challenge to evangelical Christianity, with its emphasis on the inner, personal experience of spirituality. But I can’t help but wonder if Everett had been more grounded in orthodox, Reformed Christianity, with its emphasis on God’s intervention in history if he could’ve found a way to solve the problem of presenting Christianity to a people who can’t even fathom the concept of God. The Piraha laughed when Everett gave his testimony, filled as they usually are with tragedy and dramatic spiritual awakenings, because the Piraha believe that people get what they deserve. In one way, they’re like ancient practitioners of the Secret; but in another way it’s like they already get the idea that nobody is entitled to an easy life. Most Christians who spend years in the faith realize that believing in Christ doesn’t guarantee good things. In fact, the opposite can be true. And Christianity shouldn’t be proved on the basis of the number of blessings a believer can count.

I hope that Bible translators don’t give up on Piraha. I’d love to read another book explaining how such a translation is achieved. It’d be fascinating!

Accidentally on Purpose by Mary F. Pols

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Synopsis:
The true story of 39-year-old film critic who has a one-night stand that leaves her Knocked Up.

Review:
Accidentally on Purpose is heartwarming, honest, and achingly real. Mary F. Pols is a fantastic writer and she managed to avoid many of the pitfalls of the autobiography by just letting the story tell itself. I was most interested in her relationship with Matt, her 29-year-old unemployed, directionless baby daddy. In many ways she tried to parent him, too, only to have to let go and let him make his own mistakes and build his own life. It’s a fun book that most moms would enjoy reading.

Before We Get Started by Bret Lott

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Synopsis:
An author’s memoir of the writing life.

Review:
Yesterday, I had the pleasure of having my work ripped to shreds at a workshop led by Bret Lott. I say “pleasure” because (a) he was right, and (b) he made it fun. I knew from reading Before We Get Started that I’d respect his opinion, but what I didn’t know was that I’d enjoy the time as much as I did

My favorite takeaway from Lott’s book is that art that endures has some element of cheesiness. That is to say, it is not afraid to love with abandon. There’s something embarrassing and uncool about such naked passion, but it’s love, not irony, that is the universal human emotion.

Loose Girl by Kerry Cohen

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Synopsis:
An autobiography of a promiscuous life.

Review:
The most striking thing about Kerry Cohen’s Loose Girl is the inevitability of her misbehavior. Cohen’s parents divorced when she was a preteen, and neither one seems able to practice any kind of responsible or involved parenting. Her dad is the kind of guy who asks for a toke when he catches his daughter and her friends getting high, and her mother is a gynecologist who prescribes abortion pills for Cohen without even an office visit. Both parents exhibit some very creepy boundary-crossing behavior. The only surprise here is that worse didn’t happen to Cohen.

As the mother of a daughter who reads a lot of stuff like this, I’m well aware of the pitfalls facing girls and young women navigating today’s world. I really hope that Superfast Husband and I can provide the kind of home where she will feel safe and secure to explore her independence–take risks without engaging in self-destructive behavior.

Cohen’s life was a misery, until she (hopefully) managed to break her pattern. Loose Girl is a sad, sobering read that sheds a lot of light on the inner pain of such a free spirit.