I like to think of myself as a writer, like to pretend that I can string together the odd sentence here and there and make it sing. But I have to admit that I was constantly humbled by the word play of Dan White in The Cactus Eaters. It’s the story of an idiot and his one true love walking the Pacific Crest Trail, a little hiking path that runs from Mexico to Canada through some of America’s last great wilderness. Here’s a couple of the sentences: His joylessness made him stand out like the shy one at an orgy.…
Tag: memoirs
Elephant Girl
“We’ve got two lives — one we’re given and the other one we make.” ― Mary Chapin Carpenter Jane Devin doesn’t agree with Mary Chapin Carpenter, she has a more deterministic view of the universe. Jane sees her life as a river flowing beyond her control, going places she doesn’t want to go, and forcing her to be something she doesn’t want to be. All memoirs like to find one note and continue to strike it over and over again. Memoirs by chefs and restaurant critics tell how food rules their lives. Memoirs of artists talk about art, musicians talk about music,…