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Rating: 
Summary: a candid look into the writer's life
Review: Alexandra Johnson, who teaches writing at Harvard and Wellesley, provides us with six excellent stories about the role of the diary in the creative lives of seven prominent female writers. The chapters are arranged progressively according to both the age of the writers at the time they began writing the most celebrated parts of their journals, and to the time period in which they lived. For each chapter, Johnson slightly modifies her style to best capture the spirit of the particular writer's life, as recorded in her diary. It is a very effective narrative device, executed with remarkable precision, a style that is very difficult to carry off without sounding artificial and capricious.The role of memoir is often underestimated outside of literary fiction, but its importance is gaining ground. One need not be an English major at some liberal arts college like Amherst, Swarthmore, Smith, Vassar, Mount Holyoke, or Sarah Lawrence, to find the subject relevant and interesting. For example, we often rely on patient memoir as medical narrative in my graduate program in biomedical ethics at the University of Maryland. History, law, and even business are focusing more attention on personal narratives now than in years past. Still, it is in the diaries of writers where we find the most inspiring stories. In Johnson's book, the frustrations and insecurities of hailed writers are laid bare for us both in their journal excerpts and in the author's impressive ancillary research, making these past figures seem ever more human than what we usually grasp from reading their fiction. The incipient chapter on Marjory Fleming, with its occassional comparisons of the central figure to other important juvenile femmes de plume (Anne Frank and the young Bronte sisters), fills the reader with both charming amusement at how such a young girl could write like such an adult, and with awe at her gifted literary ability, which was cut so short by an early death. The next two chapters, on Sonya Tolstoy and Alice James, show us the age-old struggle of the aspiring female writer against male-imposed (both societal and familial) restrictions to her creative expression. These are among the most emotionally frustrating chapters; they often reminded me of the classes I took as a Women's Studies minor in college. My favorite chapter is about the relationship between the great Virginia Woolf and Katherine Mansfield, as recorded in their diaries. The way that Johnson writes about these two, one can feel the writers living and breathing, conversing and writing, fretting and maligning, praising and rejoicing in their shared and individual literary triumphs and (often self-perceived) failures. Of all the chapters, this one is a true must-read for the bookworm short on time. The following chapter on the provocative (and promiscuous) Anais Nin reads almost like a confessional more than a biography. The most interesting points of this entry are where Nin confronts her own dishonesty within her diary's pages--the 'cardinal sin' of journal-keeping. Without saying so explicitly, Johnson shows the reader by example how important it is to keep one's diary devoid of any false stories or feelings. The last chapter on May Sarton is like smiling into the day's end--the golden years of one's life published in best-selling diaries. One is never too old to begin, I suppose. The six chapters are capped by a prologue and epilogue, both in the form of diary entries (they may very well be) from Johnson's contemporary life. This book, unlike so many other nonfiction books of its kind out there, reads like a seamless biography that entertains, informs, and (most importantly) moves the reader to a better appreciation of the interior lives of some great (and some overlooked) female writers and diarists. It is a book for reflection on the power and value of keeping a diary (or 'journal,' for us men), and for motivation for all of us to start keeping one of our own.
Rating:
Summary: Highly Recommended!
Review: It is one of the most interesting books I have ever read. It shows the lives and work of seven authors from the point of view of their diaries. I strongly recommend it.
Rating:
Summary: Journals are a part of the Literary Canon
Review: This book puts journals in the Academy. I just returned from a doctoral colloquium where a leaner said that journals are not considered part of the literary canon. Having read this book, and believing stronly in its fine research, literary scholarship, and validity, I was able to reference this book as a must read for those who feel the journal has been left out of the Academy. Hats off to Alexandra Johnson for putting journals on the canonic map. To add to the Hidden Writer of journal entries, here is a journal entry of mine made on 03.27.01, maybe you have one to add to the canon? """Important note:
Linany of "things" is a way of taking morphine at edge of death -- it's like loud music that blocks out ones own thoughts, yet at the same time resonates with thoughts -- dual purpose to litany -- to escape conscious experience of abyss, yet to enter unconscious experiences of abyss to deal at level that would otherwise "destroy" consciousness -- Cross did not destry consciousness, a part of him did die with his platoon mate. must die if morally resposible -- must must come back to life if human to heal -- purpose of fiction. Gets us through an abyss of our times, gives our fragmented history a thread of continuity to go on."""
Rating:
Summary: Journals are a part of the Literary Canon
Review: This book puts journals in the Academy. I just returned from a doctoral colloquium where a leaner said that journals are not considered part of the literary canon. Having read this book, and believing stronly in its fine research, literary scholarship, and validity, I was able to reference this book as a must read for those who feel the journal has been left out of the Academy. Hats off to Alexandra Johnson for putting journals on the canonic map. To add to the Hidden Writer of journal entries, here is a journal entry of mine made on 03.27.01, maybe you have one to add to the canon? """Important note:
Linany of "things" is a way of taking morphine at edge of death -- it's like loud music that blocks out ones own thoughts, yet at the same time resonates with thoughts -- dual purpose to litany -- to escape conscious experience of abyss, yet to enter unconscious experiences of abyss to deal at level that would otherwise "destroy" consciousness -- Cross did not destry consciousness, a part of him did die with his platoon mate. must die if morally resposible -- must must come back to life if human to heal -- purpose of fiction. Gets us through an abyss of our times, gives our fragmented history a thread of continuity to go on."""
Rating:
Summary: Magnificent!
Review: What a fantastic find! This book is one of those treasures that you will never forget! A truly savoury read!
Rating:
Summary: Magnificent!
Review: What a fantastic find! This book is one of those treasures that you will never forget! A truly savoury read!
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