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ireanirean's review
emotional
lighthearted
reflective
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? N/A
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.5
rainbowbookworm's review
4.0
This is a fascinating glimpse into the lives of these people, but I want more. I've read entire novels with plenty of character development where I find myself apathetic to the characters' plights. Yet Scanlan has dissected the perfect sentences from this journal and I went on a roller coaster ride of mundane tasks, maladies, and loss.
kaylarage's review
4.0
It's short. It's strange. It's beautiful.
You can imagine a life in so little words.
You can imagine a life in so little words.
lauraschhh's review
5.0
My work gives me a soft spot for ordinary diaries of ordinary people—this was perfect.
inthebelljar's review
3.0
I love experimental books, ones that play with format and perspectives and such, so when I read the description of this work, I immediately went and got it from my library. This is a unique collection and rearrangement by the author of a real elderly woman's diary that spans 5 years. From reading other reviews, I'm not the only one who has struggled to classify this. I feel like poetry might feel the closest to it, but I'm not sure even then. Prose poetry maybe? I enjoyed this and I agree with another reviewer that it almost feels wrong to rate this on a 5 star scale; it wasn't written to be a book/prose poetry, after all. These are words from a diary, rearranged and presented in a new way by Scanlan.
I liked it. I really did like it, but something still did feel missing from it, which feels weird to say. I didn't want the author to, for example, start making words up and placing them in so I understand things couldn't be expanded upon but I still felt this weird sense of wanting more from this. I do think that Scanlan did a wonderful job of evoking that strange, surreal feeling of witnessing elderly relatives and friends trapped in a cycle of illness and declining health before the end all while the world keeps moving. Because things do keep moving, even while you're caring for and losing loved ones. I closed the book with a strange hollow feeling in my chest and thoughts of my grandma who I lost this year after a long struggle with dementia.
Still, even if not a 5-star read, I really do appreciate the way the author experimented and played with these already written words.
It's a short read. Maybe 20 minutes of reading while working on other things. Lots of margin space and one or two line pages, so if this is even remotely interesting-sounding, I would recommend checking it out.
I liked it. I really did like it, but something still did feel missing from it, which feels weird to say. I didn't want the author to, for example, start making words up and placing them in so I understand things couldn't be expanded upon but I still felt this weird sense of wanting more from this. I do think that Scanlan did a wonderful job of evoking that strange, surreal feeling of witnessing elderly relatives and friends trapped in a cycle of illness and declining health before the end all while the world keeps moving. Because things do keep moving, even while you're caring for and losing loved ones. I closed the book with a strange hollow feeling in my chest and thoughts of my grandma who I lost this year after a long struggle with dementia.
Still, even if not a 5-star read, I really do appreciate the way the author experimented and played with these already written words.
It's a short read. Maybe 20 minutes of reading while working on other things. Lots of margin space and one or two line pages, so if this is even remotely interesting-sounding, I would recommend checking it out.
edgofe's review
2.0
Aug 9 is a very special date for my wife and I, therefore the cover of this book immediately caught our eye while browsing a mom-and-pop bookstore in San Francisco.
It looks like a book; it feels like a book, it is formatted like a book, yet it is not.
Kathryn Scanlan found a diary in an estate sale and from it created this art project, re-arranging phrases and entries from the diary and taking us through a year in the life of its 86-year-old author. Some diary entries, feel warm and comfortable while others feel sad and melancholic, it is up to the reader to imagine and form and idea of the context and situations our diary author is living.
You can read this erasure-style work in less than 15 minutes; this “book?” probably has less than 500 words in total. The style didn't work for me and I would not recommend it. However, it will be remaining on my shelf due to the beautiful hardcover.
It looks like a book; it feels like a book, it is formatted like a book, yet it is not.
Kathryn Scanlan found a diary in an estate sale and from it created this art project, re-arranging phrases and entries from the diary and taking us through a year in the life of its 86-year-old author. Some diary entries, feel warm and comfortable while others feel sad and melancholic, it is up to the reader to imagine and form and idea of the context and situations our diary author is living.
You can read this erasure-style work in less than 15 minutes; this “book?” probably has less than 500 words in total. The style didn't work for me and I would not recommend it. However, it will be remaining on my shelf due to the beautiful hardcover.
ktrain3900's review
emotional
inspiring
mysterious
reflective
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A
3.25
More interesting, I think, in concept than in execution. While there is a sparse beauty to the movement through a year (and through the years), I was more intrigued by what might have been left out and by who these people are, both the diarist and those she wrote about. Are any of them still living? How exactly are they all related? How do they know each other? Many images are lovely enough to evoke sketches in the mind, but ultimately I come away more invested in what's missing than in what's there.
hillarycopsey's review
5.0
What a perfect, plain-spoken little time capsule! Scanlan created this book from a real-life diary of an Illinois woman who was 86 when she began writing in 1968. The result feels a little like poetry, a spare memoir. In carving out a story from the entries, Scanlan has uncovered an evocative, colorful voice, one that felt specific but also representative of so many of the older folks I grew up with in 1980s rural Ohio. She reminded me of my grandparents and great-grandparents, particularly my Little Grandma, my great grandma, who would've been just a bit younger than the journal's author.
I loved this. So often I read Midwestern/rural books that feel hokey or overwrought. This felt true.
It reminded me a bit of Coulson's One Woman Show, a novel told in museum tags about one socialite's life from childhood to death. In each case, the authors have managed to hint at an entire life in a very tight form. Impressive.
I'm keeping this one near my reading chair and checking in with it often.
I loved this. So often I read Midwestern/rural books that feel hokey or overwrought. This felt true.
It reminded me a bit of Coulson's One Woman Show, a novel told in museum tags about one socialite's life from childhood to death. In each case, the authors have managed to hint at an entire life in a very tight form. Impressive.
I'm keeping this one near my reading chair and checking in with it often.
shoba's review
3.0
“Ever where slick. Another beautiful
white frost A.M. eyes got the
glimmer.”
And later.
“Ever where glare of ice. We didn’t
sleep too good. My pep has left me.”
white frost A.M. eyes got the
glimmer.”
And later.
“Ever where glare of ice. We didn’t
sleep too good. My pep has left me.”
foofers1622's review
3.0
A strange little book. I feel like this is more in line with poetry. I would have loved if she made a story based off of the entries.