Life Story Links: June 22, 2021
“For many who reminisce, the story—the end product—is the most important outcome; but for others it is the therapeutic process of revisiting and reconsidering memories which is more important.”
—Barbara Haight
Vintage photo for LIFE magazine; uncredited. © Time.
Objects of Affection
BETWEEN THE PAGES
A visit to novelist Philip Roth’s personal collection at the Newark Public Library in New Jersey (just opened on June 8) promises to delight with books crammed with Roth’s handwritten marginalia, personal letters tucked between pages, and one of seven scrapbooks his mother kept about his life.
“MY FATHER’S SHOES”
“His dress shoes, wingtips and oxfords told a straightforward story.... But the beat-up shoes he wore at home and in the yard were mysteries, and their images lingered with me,” Clorisa Phillips writes in this short personal essay.
Memoirs & Personal Essays of Note
TRAVEL GUIDE TO THE HEART
“Even though [Bad Tourist] is full of exciting, accidental, ill-advised experiences while on the road, [Suzanne] Roberts just as deftly moves into writing about those moments when “the world itself shifted” and finds the deeper revelations in her discomfort.”
CHILDHOOD, CATHOLICISM, AND CONFESSION
“We were a baptized bunch, but regular church attendance was never on the menu…. If Sunday was the Lord’s day, we were only taught to pray to the gods of the split-finger fastball and John Wayne.” A delightful excerpt from Danielle Henderson’s new memoir The Ugly Cry.
“THE MIGRANT RAIN”
“All this lives on in me, in the tense and aching body I’ve inherited. They are the things that make these words possible. This is how the story, with its many gaps, continues.” Vinh Nguyen is haunted by the ghosts of migration.
PROOF OF LIFE
A theorem has a teleological cast; one idea follows another, in a steady march toward a concise conclusion. A life isn’t necessarily like that. My dad still marvels at a career and a life that he never could have anticipated.
A YEAR IN THE LIFE OF A 16-YEAR-OLD ACTIVIST
From the diaries of teenage naturalist Dara McAnulty: “Mum thinks I invented this memory from a photograph, because I wasn’t even two years old. But I’m convinced it’s real. Maybe I processed more of it when I was older, attached new memories, but that moment left such a deep, warm feeling.”
Stories Told, Stories Received
IT TAKES TWO
Did you ever notice how magical it can be when two people swap personal stories? Last week I wrote about the top three benefits of having an engaged listener to your stories.
WE BELONG TO EACH OTHER
StoryCorps has released a new season of animated shorts that bring poignant moments from participants’ interviews to life. I was moved by this one in which a grandson recounts his relationship with his grandmother, his “first roommate”:
CHAIN OF REMEMBRANCE
“What might I pass along that will be experienced—by those I will someday leave behind, and those to come—as something of value?” Andy Schmookler embarks of what he calls “the heirloom project.”
A SURVIVOR’S LEGACY
Chicagoan Fritzie Fritzshall, a survivor of the Auschwitz concentration camp, recently died at the age of 91; she dedicated her life to fighting against hatred. In the clip below, she remembers a family member who saved her life:
...and a Few More Links
Ever read a graphic memoir? Check out a brief excerpt by Rebecca Hall (I recommend viewing on a full screen).
Lisa Kagan of Family Heirloom Arts has released a new book, Coming Home to Myself.
Short Takes
