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zachkuhn's review
2.0
Some beautiful passages reminiscent of Nick Flynn and John D'Agata's work. But the constant "inside baseball" of literary elite gossip is off-putting. (Call him "John Irving" instead of "Famous Writer"--when you reference a(n) (in)famous incident in Garp a few sentences later, you're telling us exactly who "he" is.) Maybe that's the point, and fine. But the honest truth is the book is built around a friendship that, while clearly valuable and important to Lisicky, finds little ground for me as a reader to tread on/in/around. Denise is both too much and not enough, which, again, is probably part of the point.
The Joni Mitchell stuff doesn't work because I don't like Joni Mitchell, but I love Marvin Gaye and the Marvin Gaye stuff doesn't work because it's too insular. The nature and end-of-the-world climate stuff doesn't work because it's not coupled with scientific insight. Flynn and D'Agata do this style of narrative nonfiction in a way that is compelling and lyrical.
The Joni Mitchell stuff doesn't work because I don't like Joni Mitchell, but I love Marvin Gaye and the Marvin Gaye stuff doesn't work because it's too insular. The nature and end-of-the-world climate stuff doesn't work because it's not coupled with scientific insight. Flynn and D'Agata do this style of narrative nonfiction in a way that is compelling and lyrical.
catdad77a45's review
3.0
3.5 This is a book I'm a bit in a quandary about how to review - the prose is terrific, and the story both interesting and personally affecting. However, I am left feeling like I didn't ever get a very clear picture about Lisicky's relationship with EITHER his longtime friend, fellow writer Denise Gess, nor his ex-husband. There are many anecdotes, but somehow they didn't add up for me. I also was put off by the author's (perhaps legally mandated?) coyness about the identities of certain 'characters' - for example he calls his ex-husband M throughout, but anyone with access to a Wikipedia page can easily find out that was poet Mark Doty - so why the subterfuge? Likewise with Gess's affair with 'Famous Writer', who was John Irving, the knowing of which makes the few glimpses of him far more interesting. Not sorry I read it, but left me feeling a bit 'meh'.
eriknoteric's review
5.0
Paul Lisicky is one of the most underrated writers working today, and "The Narrow Door" is yet another example of a authorial voice that pierces a readers soul with his prose.
"The Narrow Door" interweaves stories of Lisicky's closest friend Denise as they both arrive on the literary scene and as Denise slowly succumbs to cancer with stories of the erosion of his longterm relationship with M. Lisicky, faced with loss after loss after loss works his way towards and through the narrow door, trying to find himself, and his own freedom, as he unpacks the losses he is withstanding. Each sentence is this book will draw you deeper and deeper into the mind of someone truly thoughtful about the world he inhabits.
Lisicky is a master at forcing you, his reader, to hear his words and to turn inwards in total self-reflection. "The Narrow Door" will force you to consider your own relationships, your own losses, and your own reaches through the narrow door to freedom; it creates a reading experience you absolutely cannot miss.
"The Narrow Door" interweaves stories of Lisicky's closest friend Denise as they both arrive on the literary scene and as Denise slowly succumbs to cancer with stories of the erosion of his longterm relationship with M. Lisicky, faced with loss after loss after loss works his way towards and through the narrow door, trying to find himself, and his own freedom, as he unpacks the losses he is withstanding. Each sentence is this book will draw you deeper and deeper into the mind of someone truly thoughtful about the world he inhabits.
Lisicky is a master at forcing you, his reader, to hear his words and to turn inwards in total self-reflection. "The Narrow Door" will force you to consider your own relationships, your own losses, and your own reaches through the narrow door to freedom; it creates a reading experience you absolutely cannot miss.
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