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Rating: 
Summary: amazing book
Review: "The Sparkling-eyed Boy" inhabits the same reserved space in my
personal text-map as Billy Collins' poetry. Or imagine David Eggars
in his more lyrical moments. Benson manages to take plain language
and do wonderfully beautiful things with it. This is from the end,
describing life/personhood/existence:"That is my problem: I have been looking shard by shard, but stand
back and I will have the whole, fluid mosaic. But I'm afraid there
is no perspective from which we can view every angle of a moment, a
year, a life, or the life of another. And there is no answer if I
have to answer the question myself." Yikes! This hits exactly right! When I am at a loss for words, the
best I can do is quote from people much more skilled with language.
Benson has given me a lot to say. :-) This is a 'small' but big book, read it carefully. This is not to
say that it's difficult to read, more that the prose has subtle
but significant power. Maybe my sense of this comes with particular
resonances with my own life -- I also recall midwestern lake summers --
but Benson makes these personal memories relevant in a way that should
intersect with anyone reading her book. It's most worthy of the
Katharine Nason Prize. I'm really looking forward to reading
Benson's future work.
Rating:
Summary: amazing book
Review: "The Sparkling-eyed Boy" inhabits the same reserved space in my
personal text-map as Billy Collins' poetry. Or imagine David Eggars
in his more lyrical moments. Benson manages to take plain language
and do wonderfully beautiful things with it. This is from the end,
describing life/personhood/existence: "That is my problem: I have been looking shard by shard, but stand
back and I will have the whole, fluid mosaic. But I'm afraid there
is no perspective from which we can view every angle of a moment, a
year, a life, or the life of another. And there is no answer if I
have to answer the question myself." Yikes! This hits exactly right! When I am at a loss for words, the
best I can do is quote from people much more skilled with language.
Benson has given me a lot to say. :-) This is a 'small' but big book, read it carefully. This is not to
say that it's difficult to read, more that the prose has subtle
but significant power. Maybe my sense of this comes with particular
resonances with my own life -- I also recall midwestern lake summers --
but Benson makes these personal memories relevant in a way that should
intersect with anyone reading her book. It's most worthy of the
Katharine Nason Prize. I'm really looking forward to reading
Benson's future work.
Rating:
Summary: There are good things here for you
Review: It is maybe surprising, considering the comparatively few people that live above the Mackinac Bridge in Michigan, that there have been a bunch of books by younger writers in the last few years about and from Michigan's Upper Peninsula (mostly poetry--see Catie Rosemurgy, Cynie Cory, Jonathan Johnson, and Beth Roberts, for starters). This is--as far as I know--the only recent memoir about the place, and it's more a sort of extended meditation than a memoir proper. Still, it is lovely and engrossing. She's conscious of herself as a tourist (both of the place and of the boy, and of her own memories, even), and this is a tour I think you'll want to take with her. Be aware that it does take some liberties with the form (it's absolutely lyrical and likely nearly poetry at times, as the reviews above allude to--and it's not exactly a memoir of things that happened), but this book is rich and good and well worth your time.
Rating:
Summary: smart, sad, strange
Review: This is a beautiful book. It's much different from Ted Conover's books (he selected it for a prize), which are terrific but more journalistic. SEB is a very personal story, told through a series of chapters or essays (and occasional fantasies) that don't necessarily follow one to the other. While I wouldn't necessarily say that this is an "experimental" book, it's definitely playing with the "normal" way of writing a memoir. After awhile you understand that a larger story is unfolding, but that it's about much more than just Benson's first love. It's about a place and time that has become mythical for her as she's grown up and away from the people and places that formed her. It makes me think of my own brief summers at the Jersey Shore, a place I haven't been back to in years but that I still remember in a strangely sad, hazy way as having been important. It seems like a particularly American story to me, where class and mobility and property and wealth and education are all tangled up and it's difficult to know where you fit in or where you'll end up or why. A complex, lovely book.
Rating:
Summary: A lyrical and dazzling book
Review: This is truly a wonderful book. Each of its sections is a lyrical essay on place, time, the burden of choice and the elusive nature of personal identity. Not a page goes by without a line or two of startling beauty and truth. Also, for someone who has experienced the part of America where lakes are seas and forests stretch north to the Artic Circle, reading "The Sparkling-eyed Boy" was a bittersweet reminder of that dazzling land.
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