Rating: 
Summary: Enjoyable read of trials and joys of a young writer.
Review: Joyce Maynard's AT HOME IN THE WORLD :A MEMOIR is an enjoyable and poignant story about a young writer who is both lonely and talented. It is also a fascinating story of a mother who is very enemshed in her daughter's life and what the daughter did to find herself. Joyce through her writing and waifish demeanor becomes a focal point of control and seduction for one of the most recluse writer's of our day, J.D. Salinger. Their relationship and subsequent breakup is the most riveting part of the book. The balance of the story seems to be falling action. I read it in one sitting and was caught up in her story. Perhaps you will be too. I could not help but feel sad at the lonely girl who was abandoned by responsibile adults as they were overtaken by celebrity. How she found her way to a fufilling life is incredible and worthy of your time. .
Rating: 
Summary: A brave, inspiring book
Review: The powerful introduction to At Home in the World explains why this book had to be written. If we don't face our demons, they will shape, sometimes destroy, our lives. Indeed, as every parent knows, they raise their heads in our relationships with our children, which is why Maynard bravely faced her demons in this inspiring book. If her subject was anyone but JD Salinger, the book would be praised for its insights and compelling story. But in a work that shows the powerful impact of traumatic experiences on our lives, she exposed some truths about a hero -- intellectuals pretend they don't have heroes but they're the worst sycophants of all -- and of course the truth hurts. The book is a well told, brave journey that shows the psychological toll of the subtle and not so subtle legacies from our parents. It sheds light on obsession -- the wounded soul most susceptible to it -- and the result, in this case the long-term impact of the victimization that occurs in a relationship between an adult and a child (even if the child is 18) . But it is also about facing the traumas and learning from them. When Maynard faced the experiences that devastated her, she emerged stronger and at peace. It also lead to a great piece of writing. I wonder if Salinger, great great writer that he was, has that peace. Rather, he seems bitter and a little crazy. Maybe if had faced some of his own demons -- what is behind the way he uses his past success to seduce very young women, for instance -- he would have figured out the real reason he became a recluse and stopped publishing. But read this book not to learn about Salinger but to learn about yourself.
Rating:
Summary: A look at individual emotional rights.
Review: Life is really about each of us, and how we live our lives. Joyce Maynard a deeply passionate and gifted writer tells a lot about emotional rights, and her story of another charismatic figure,JD Salinger in her book At Home in the World. Few contemporary writers celebrate emotional rights with more enthusiasm than Joyce Maynard,but emotional rights,have a price. It provokes tensions that often get in the way of her telling people how she leaned to awaken from the illusions of what parents,culture and life taught her,and that she could teach others to awaken. Life is art she points out, but life is also short. There is little room for anything that gets in the way of enjoying ourselves without tensions that weaken our freedoms,independence,and autonomy The tragedy of the human condition is, that we think we are exercising emotional rights in our life ,but may have simply fallen asleep with the lights on.
Rating: 
Summary: If you need a sleep aid.......
Review: Although I did manage to read it to the last page, my review of "At Home in the World" could be summed up in one word. "Excruciating." For someone with no interest in J.D. Salinger's idiosyncracies (which seems to be all the insight Ms. Maynard gained into the famous writer in those nine whole months they spent together 25 years ago), this book has nothing to offer except a flatly narrated, tedious tale of today's most trendy topic: dysfunctional families. What bothered me more than anything were the supposedly verbatim conversations she claims to remember so vividly all these years later. To my mind, they rang false and hollow, and therefore raised questions in my mind about the truth and accuracy of the rest of the book. All in all, this book has little to recommend it, in my mind. I could give a rat's butt about Salinger's privacy concerns - what bothers me is the arrogance of a writer who would exploit a man she obviously barely knew to sell books. And then to tell the tale in such a painfully boring way.
Rating:
Summary: entertaining, well written
Review: Joyce Maynard was one of few women gifted with both talent and opportunity. I ached inside as I watched her set aside her own dreams and aspirations for the needs of others. I wanted to blame J.D. Salinger. I wanted to blame Joyces first husband for being so cold and unavailable. I was hoping for an ending that would allow Joyce to discover her role as a participant, rather than a victim of her circumstances. The book seemed rather unfinished as the reader is left feeling she understands more about the writer than she understands about herself. Joyces memory for detail is phenomenal. I felt as though I was watching a video of her life rather than reading a book. I found this book to say much about myself and my generation of women in general, particularly in the way we often barter our dignity and self esteem for the security of a relationship. Helen Temple
Rating:
Summary: Joyce Maynard Looks Homeward with the Eyes of an Adult Woman
Review: From the beginning words of "At Home in the World" through to its final scene, one thing is clear to the reasonable reader - this is Joyce Maynard's voice, rather than a book about J.D. Salinger. Of, by, and about Ms. Maynard, the book is an assessment of her self then and now with, as she has said during recent television interviews, "...the eyes of an adult woman." Despite the froth to be found in a number of the early print reviewers' denouncements (some of which seemed to predate the book's final version), I feel the reader will find him or herself far more intrigued by the impact of the Maynard-Salinger relationship upon Ms. Maynard's subsequent writer's and personal life, rather than yielding to some kind of titillation over Mr. Salinger's lifestyle. Contrasting the book that she wrote during her time with Mr. Salinger (i.e., "Looking Back") to her later and contemporary efforts, what one reads in "At Home in the World" is a memoir of the pivot point in the life of a writer - an individual - discovering the introspective as a point of view: absent or denied before, added to the psychological palette thereafter. The writer, of course, is Ms. Maynard. Although particular attention to the Salinger chapters is inevitable, there is a true sense of psychological tension and drama in Ms. Maynard's all-too-brief description of the two-year period that immediately followed. A deeper description of this part of her life would have made this book an even stronger work. This was a time of geographical and psychosocial isolation, as Ms. Maynard lived in her own private New Hampshire. She grew out of it. Ms. Maynard developed into the type of writer that she is today - one with the innate ability of a story-teller to put her arm around one's shoulder, draw one in, and say 'Please, come and read this - I think you'll like it. And, please, tell me what you think of it, because I'd really like to know.' Her readers of many years' tenure admire this and expect this of her. You are there with her in her journey to that private door in Cornish, first through the eyes of a teen-ager and, again, through the eyes of an adult woman. She does not disappoint. Jill Ker Conway, in an interview earlier this year about her own book on memoir writing, "When Memory Speaks," spoke of the need for the memoir writer to mature before taking on the task of presenting one's autobiography. Ms. Maynard's maturity is clearly evident to the reader, as one reads what home she did build for herself in the world and what she now sees whenever she looks homeward.
Rating:
Summary: Wrestling with her past
Review: As one who became interested in Joyce Maynard's writing through her essays on parenting, I was curious to read her story as told in "At Home in the World." I found myself both startled and intrigued by her introduction where she speaks of wrestling with her daughter, Audrey, after having edited and re-written Audrey's college entrance essay without permission. I discovered that the image of mother and daughter fighting entwined on the floor, has a deeper meaning that encompasses the entire story. In essence, "At Home in the World," is a book in which Maynard wrestles with her past and her future, both symbolized by her daughter, who so closely resembles Maynard's mother. Throughout the book, she strives to come to terms with a highly eventful and a highly tumultuous life which has left her feeling detached from her contemporaries and the world. The daughter of both an alcoholic father, and of a mother who has melded identities with her, AHITW is Maynard's struggle to acknowledge her past and step beyond it to create a future and a life space of her own. She perseveres through an affair, quest for love, difficult divorce, parenting struggles and anguish. While Maynard speaks frankly and in great detail of her relationship with renowned writer, J.D. Salinger, the book is not Salinger's story, but hers. Anyone who has wrestled with their own painful past will find Maynard to be a "landsman," fellow journeyer, and survivor, who has arrived at a place where she now feels "At Home in the World," able to celebrate a mid-life rebirth. The strength of both the writing and the writer was impressive.
Rating:
Summary: A sometimes difficult life, honestly told
Review: At Home in the World is, contrary to popular perception and its publisher's hype, NOT about J.D. Salinger. It is a memoir about Joyce Maynard, writer, mother, precocious young woman. As is to be expected from a memoir it includes the people, forces, and events that formed her. These include her alcoholic father, a frustrated artist, and her mother, a woman educationally overqualified for her life and bent on living vicariously through the lives of her daughters. The book carries us through Ms. Maynard's life, evidently, pretty much up until now. It encompasses her marriage (to another frustrated artist), her adventures in the writing trade, the birthing and mothering of three beautiful kids (There are photos and drawings reproduced on the endpapers.), and her divorce. The book even deals with the writing of this book. Oh, yeah. And she was involved for a year with J.D. Salinger when she was 18 and he was 53. Despite the fact that the sexual aspect of this relationship was largely dysfunctional, the relationship understandably looms large in her life, and she devotes a third of the book to it. This is all presented in a deliberately straightforward way and makes for a compelling read. Ms. Maynard has plainly made a stylistic decision to allow accretion of fact and detail to tell her story and has left it for the reader to form his own judgements. One would imagine that she has quite a bit of bitter anger resulting from some of the events that she describes, but she spares us any whining, bile, or cries of victimhood, and leaves the facts to speak for themselves. And the story of what one hopes is her final meeting with Salinger, in 1997, is worth the price of this book all by itself.
Rating:
Summary: A (Pleasant) Surprise After Reading the V-F Excerpt!
Review: As an avid reader who has read and re-read all of J.D.Salinger's major works, I read the "Vanity Fair" excerpt of Joyce Maynard's new book ("At Home in the World") and elected to read Maynard's book, but with some skepticism in what I thought would be an attack on one of America's noted authors. Boy, was I SURPRISED -- and WRONG! The VF excerpt alone does the book no justice, and one is reminded of being too quick to judge. In her book, Maynard takes us on a journey, an emotional trek from her childhood to present which not only gives us insight into Maynard and Salinger, but moreso ourselves. While some might suggest that she was born into a dysfunctional family, it is evident that her experience is familiar, not unique. After all, who among us have not known alcoholism in the lives of loved ones? or who has not witnessed women, such as Maynard's mother, living a frustrated existence as a repressed housewife/mother in the 50's and 60's? For sure, we can be happy for Maynard that she has surmounted her emotional mountain, but as well, we can be thankful that Maynard has written a book in which many of us can identify and find our own revelations from secrets we have buried deep in the recesses of our hearts. There's a wisdom we gain from understanding Maynard's life... and knowing that we are not alone in the world. Deeply surprising to me was the very compassionate manner in which Maynard tells the story of those people whose lives influenced her significantly. Her love for her parents and sister come through as one would expect. What is particularly unexpected, however, is how Maynard acknowledges with great sympathy the relationship she had 25 years ago with Salinger. Far from being an expose' of the recent "tell-all" type memoirs, we are given a respectful portrayal of Salinger, whose reclusiveness is lengendary. If I was expecting a "victim" drama from Maynard, then I was to be let down. Instead, we can only feel great relief and satisfaction for Maynard's self-discovery... and still be able to walk away from the book with our respect for Salinger intact. This is a remarkable story told with great writing. To many, it will serve to reveal as much about the poignancy of our own relationships as those which Maynard has shared with us. Highly recommended!
Rating:
Summary: Greatest Courage Is Always Personal
Review: When she was eighteen years-old,Joyce Maynard became an instant celebrity when she wrote her autobiography. Now in her forties, Maynard's talent, as her life, has been seasoned and allowed to grow. At HOME IN THE WORLD could be every woman's journey to independence and self-respect. Sadly, reviewers frequently overlook the stunning writing of this memoir when they reach "the Salinger year." At 18, Joyce found an ally in 53 year-old JD Salinger. Salinger took her under his wing and into his bed. What started out as nurturing, quickly turned into emotionally abusing and went undiscussed by Joyce for over twenty years. Now, in talking about what it takes to make a whole and healthy life both as a writer, mother and member of the human race, Joyce also touches on that period in New Hampshire with the man who gave us Holden Caulfield. Turns out, to no great surprise, he is Caulfield,confused and emotionally arrested. At Home in the World is a great read and so well written that it comes off as a friend having coffee and talking about her life. Cheap shots have been taken at Maynard's willingness to share her lessons with the world. Too bad because no one writes better about everyday life than Joyce Maynard and it's every day life that gets us in the end.
|
