Publisher's Weekly Review
Starred Review. Skloot had been writing poetry for 20 years, short stories for 15, with three novels on the way, when he was struck with a brain disease that ravaged his memory. Fiction became impossible. Only memoir could help him reassemble his past; two he wrote in this phase, In the Shadow of Memory and A World of Light, have received great praise. This latest memoir moves away from the illness theme to explore what has made Skloot a writer, the sort of person who could only deal with what happened to him by writing about it. He first explores what he calls external influences forming him as a writer--the discovery that he could fulfill school writing assignments with his baseball mania, that his television heroes like Peter Gunn were cooler as observers than as doers, even that the rituals of cooking could bring comfort. Then he focuses on how his writerly sensibilities have shaped his life--from how he jogged listening to hear the hidden cadence to the way he communicated with his aging, memory-impaired mother through song. Skloot is such a fine writer that he can--and does--write about eating baloney and eggs and makes it seem fascinating. Writers at any stage of their careers will treasure this volume of clean, expressive prose that delights without ever showing off. (Sept.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved All rights reserved.
Booklist Review
Novelist and poet Skloot was struck by a brain virus in 1988, which left him unable to write novels. The memoir form saved him, and in his latest he ponders the proclivities and circumstances that led him to become a writer. As a boy, Skloot had a vivid imagination that was fueled by his love for reading, the advent of television, and obsessions with both sports and rock 'n' roll. Television especially a small black-and-white Zenith became, Skloot writes, a means of affirming that what I fabricated in my head could have a life of its own. Going away to college enabled him to escape from his cold, abusive mother, while a job reading to a blind professor showed him how dialogue establishes character and moves the narrative along. Now that his mother suffers with the wreckage of dementia at 94, Skloot finds similarities between their brain patterns, where threads binding past and present have frayed. Memoir may not be his genre of choice, but Skloot's newest is wise, thoughtful, and gently humorous.--Donovan, Deborah Copyright 2008 Booklist
Library Journal Review
In Skloot's fourth memoir (after A World of Light) since being struck at 41 with a neurological virus that significantly impaired his memory, the award-winning poet and novelist describes the family influences and cultural experiences that shaped him and focuses on how his upbringing influenced the rest of his career. Throughout his life, he has lived in grief over his father's death, his mother's experience with Alzheimer's, and his own struggles with loneliness and serious health issues. He expresses how if he were fully engaged by a book, it would absorb his body like a virus, yet the story would take place in his world rather than in the imaginary world that occurs while reading. Skloot feels great writing can make time stand still, thus sending writers to another world. The essays collected here--including his Pushcart Prize-winning "The Voice of the Past" and others that originally appeared in various literary journals, sometimes in different versions--are funny, sad, and inspiring. Skloot has done a remarkable job of re-creating his life and showing readers how writing is therapeutic.--Susan McClellan, Shaler North Hills Lib., Glenshaw, PA (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.