Ghost Light : A Memoir
by FRANK RICH
Average Customer Review:
Paperback (09 October, 2001)
list price: $14.95 -- our price: $10.17
(price subject to change: see help)
US | Canada | United Kingdom | Germany | France

Editorial Review

When Frank Rich was an anxious, unhappy kid marooned in the suburbs of Washington, D.C., the fact his parents were divorced was discussed "only in the whisper that Grandma Ross used when talking about being Jewish or having cancer." Like so many others who feel painfully different, Frank found refuge in the theater, particularly the classic musicals of Broadway's golden age. After an enchanted trip to see Bells Are Ringing in 1956 when he was 7, Rich writes, "I was now destined to trace my childhood almost exclusively through an accelerating progression of plays, good and bad, that would captivate and kidnap me." Many of the tickets came from his stepfather, who was sometimes generous and fun but often frighteningly abusive. Once again, the theater helped him cope: when Frank saw Gypsy, its portrait of troubled family relations "made me feel less lonely."Similarly, when chronicling his attendance at such legendary shows as Bye Bye Birdie, Fiddler on the Roof, and A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, among many others, Rich concentrates on his responses rather than the productions themselves. What interests him most here is the theater's power to shape lives. Paying tribute to the men who both shared and cultivated his passion for the theater, Rich draws touching portraits of Scott Kirkpatrick, manager of Washington's National Theatre, who hired young Frank as a ticket taker, and of Clayton Coots, a company manager who befriended him. Those who admired (or excoriated) Rich's work as drama critic for The New York Times will find Ghost Light an intriguing look at the personal history that lies behind his critical judgments. --Wendy Smith ... Read more

Reviews (15)

Ghost Light by Frank Rich


"There is a superstition that if an emptied theater is ever left completely dark, a ghost will take up residence. To prevent this, a single "ghost light" is left burning at center stage after the audience and all of the actors and musicians have gone home."

Set in Washington D.C. during the influential and changing times of the 1950's and early 60's, the autobiographical novel Ghost Light follows the trying life of Frank Rich, illustrating the profound and immense impact that the theatre had on his childhood and life as a whole. At the tender age of ten, Frank's parents committed the ultimate sin in society at that time by getting a divorce, a scandalous action that would continue to affect him and his sister for the rest of their lives, becoming the most important of the myriad of conflicts presented throughout the story. However, the allure of the theatre softened the immense pain and gave Frank a new perspective and outlook on the world. His everyday life and customs drastically altered by his parents separation, Rich took comfort in musicals including Gypsy , Damn Yankees, The Pajama Game, Fiddler on the Roof and South Pacific which seemed to seperate him from real life and the many problems associated with it. Growing more and more dependant upon the glamorous era of Broadway to hide him from the many problems that he was facing in life including thepainful emotional and physical abuse of his step-father, Rich is transported to a world free of problems and limitations through these shows that have a tremendous influence on his life and decisions. A dedicated fan, Rich reconstructes miniature theater sets and collects discarded Playbills from garbage baskets, trying to fill the empty pieces of his life and soul with these plays. In a world where everything around him seemed to be changing, these classic musicals remained solid as a place of comfort and security for Frank, becoming a major part of his life and ultimately helping him through the difficult transition from child to adult.

Composing the book from his own perspective, Rich allows the reader to experience his life through the eyes of a young boy, initially illustrating events from a child's perspective and allowing the reader to experience first hand his own feelings and problems. His style of writing is somewhat reminiscent of the time period, portraying his life and character to the reader clearly and allowing one to really connect with him. " Sitting before the TV sets in our living rooms- they hadn't invaded bedrooms yet- we watched our neighborhood in a faithful black-and-white replication; the same driveways jutting like tongues from garage to street, the same lawns awaiting the next weekend mowing, the same father with his genial grin and firm but calming voice, the same perpetually amused, slightly distracted, occasionally flustered, but resolutely uncomplaining mother poking around in the kitchen preparing the next meal, the same mischievous but fundamentally good brothers and sisters committing only the most innocuous infractions of their parents' painstakingly codified rules. Sometimes it was hard to figure out where Somerset ended and the TV neighborhoods began" (5). Rich allows the reader to understand the familiarity and comfort found by living in the suburbs during this time period, the unwavering routine that was always followed and the false sense of happiness and perfection within family life. Through this description, he allows one to realize and comprehend the immense impact that the dissolution of his own family had on his personality, shattering the false perception of a perfect suburban life and disrupting the sense of order within their community.

I thoroughly enjoyed and connected with this book on a myriad of levels. Through Rich's unique style of writing it was easy for me to understand how difficult and awkward it must have been to be placed in Frank's position in a society and time in history in which such a thing as divorce was simply unacceptable. Also being a lover of music and plays, I particularly enjoyed his admiration and strong dedication to Broadway life and was thrilled when he was finally able to achieve his dream through his job as a New York Times reviewer. In my opinion, this book is a portrait of one boy's journey from a home, communtiry and era in which he no longer belongs to a new life filled with music, excitement and action and I recommend it to all in search of an inspirational and uplifting read.

A poignant memoir
Frank Rich's boyhood story was touching, and I found I couldn't put it down!He gave a very good account of how the theatre saved him from a very loney and confusing childhood.I was fascinated with the parallels he saw in his own life and the characters in the plays he enjoyed so much.The story is told through the eyes of a child.Mr. Rich does an excellent job of providing details of life in Washington during the late 60's and the people he met along the way, and the influence they had in his life, good or bad.I look forward to his next book.

A thoroughly engrossing memoir
I heard this book on audio tape in my car and found myself longing to go to work or do an errand so that I could get to the next chapter of Frank Rich's fabulous memoir.He remembered so many details of his life and presented them in such a candid way, that he endeared himelf to me. We listen to his feelings intenetly because he doesn't hide a thing. His joys and fears are all there and we experience them with him. I felt like I really got to watch him grow up, and I could feel his passion for the theatre grow along the way. I greatly identified with Mr. Rich because I also came from a divorced family with a very difficult stepfather. My only regret with this book is that it ended! I can't wait for the sequel. ... Read more

Isbn: 0375758240
Subjects:  1. Biography    2. Biography & Autobiography    3. Biography / Autobiography    4. Biography/Autobiography    5. Childhood Memoir    6. Critics    7. Editors, Journalists, Publishers    8. Entertainment & Performing Arts - General    9. Entertainment & Performing Arts - Theatre    10. Rich, Frank    11. Theater critics    12. United States    13. Biography & Autobiography / Entertainment & Performing Arts   

Hannah's Gift : Lessons from a Life Fully Lived
by MARIA HOUSDEN
Average Customer Review:
Hardcover (26 February, 2002)
list price: $17.95
US | Canada | United Kingdom | Germany | France

Editorial Review

Hannah's Gift addresses a mother's deepest fear: the death of a child. Amazingly, Maria Housden's skillful writing and mature understanding of grief make this a spiritually inspiring story about life. Housden is eager for us to learn all the lessons Hannah offered while she was dying of cancer, such as wearing red shoes that click and sparkle when you walk and never letting a doctor touch you without knowing their first name. For the reader, however, the most compelling character is Housden, a mother who endures the unfathomable. One morning Housden looks at her face in the mirror and realizes, "The grief that once threatened to swallow me up had found a home in my bones. My suffering wasn't something I was going to have to let go of; it became part of what I had to offer, part of who I am." Sure, you're going to cry. But it's the kind of heart-cracking-open cry that comes from an abundance of feelings: sorrow for this wise and gut-honest narrator; tenderness for Will, the loyal older brother that Hannah left behind; and love for this baffling, wonderful life that gives us gifts like Hannah. --Gail Hudson ... Read more

Reviews (27)

Hannah's Gift
Hannah's Gift was an excellent book.It really showed the emotions both the cancer patient and the loved ones felt.It would be a great reference if you are dealing with a loved one having cancer because it tells a lot about how Hannah's mother feels throughout Hannah's ordeal.It also answers a lot of questions that a cancer patient might be afraid of asking.For anyone going through a hard time, this book would be a great source of help.It gives lessons on joy, faith, courage, hope, and wonder.While i was reading it, I was going through tough times and it helped me think about the things that were going on in my life and it helped loosen the knot around my heart.It doesn't so much tell about cancer, but it deals with emotions and decisions wonderfully.

The power of a little girl
When I began to read this book I didn't know what I was getting into.I thought that this was a story of a little girl with cancer that I had to read for class, but what I found was amazing!From the opening story of a little girl in a mall dancing in circles because she loved her new red shoes I was hooked.I couldn't put the book down!I wanted to read more about all the cute things that she was going to do with her life.As I begin to turn every page I began to feel like I was there with Hannah and her mother going through every moment with them.From the first doctor visit to the last breath that Hannah ever took I felt like I was there.
The lesson that I learned from this book was how to cope with life after the death of a child.I learned that to truely remember them you can't pack their things up in a box, but you have to share them and show them so the loved one spirt is with you every momoent of everyday.This book is an awazing story told through the eyes of a mother that will inspire the inter child within us all!

The Teachings of a Child
Hannah's Gift as been the best book I have read in a long time.It made me laugh and it made me cry, but I also learned many things while reading this outstanding book. During the story, Hannah teaches everyone around her many things about life and how to live it to the fullest. Even though she knows she is sick, she does everything a little kid would do.I recommend this book to everyone who knows or has a friend with cancer. It will definitely help you get through the situation and make you feel better as a person. ... Read more

Isbn: 0553802100
Subjects:  1. Biography    2. Biography / Autobiography    3. Cancer    4. Cancer in children    5. Death, Grief, Bereavement    6. Kidneys    7. Parental Memoirs    8. Patients    9. Religion    10. Specific Groups - Special Needs    11. Spirituality - General    12. United States    13. Religion / Spirituality   

Of Time and Memory : My Parents' Love Story
by DON J. SNYDER
Average Customer Review:
Paperback (27 February, 2001)
list price: $14.00 -- our price: $11.20
(price subject to change: see help)
US | Canada | United Kingdom | Germany | France

Editorial Review

Sixteen days after author Don Snyder (The Cliff Walk) and his twin brother were born in 1950, their 19-year-old mother died. Her heartbroken husband, Richard, chose to never discuss her with his sons. But when Snyder, now in his late 40s, stumbles across a picture of his parents, he determines to excavate his mother's short existence as a gift for his father, who is dying from a brain tumor. This tender but terribly sad memoir is the result: the chronicle of smart, beautiful, but intensely private Peggy Schwartz, who wasn't as confident as she seemed, who felt completed by the love of a devout World War II veteran, who chose to carry her pregnancy to term and conceal her life-threatening toxemia from that beloved husband. As Snyder delves into his mother's life and death, he alternates between the love and rage that bring him closer to the man most deeply scarred by this youthful tragedy. The book's last scene, in which father and son sit together looking through Dick and Peggy Snyder's wedding album, is almost unbearably poignant. Yet there's also joy in the author's mystical belief that his quest has opened for him "the path back through stars and memory" that will one day reunite wife and husband, mother and sons. --Wendy Smith ... Read more

Reviews (14)

Raw and heartbreaking
It is amazing that Snyder had the ability to put this story on paper and go through what was necessary to do so.His writing is extraordinary, and I do not use that word lightly.It has been about 3 years since I read this book and it is easily one of the few that will stick with me forever.It reads like a love story, a mystery, and the memoir that it is.Bravo, Mr. Snyder.

The way writing should be taught
To me, this was a masterpiece--something I didn't expect.I had read his previous book "The Cliff Walk" and found out later that he was doing a reading that summer of "Of Time and Memory" at a local bookstore.At that reading, I told him that The Cliff Walk was incredibly written and that I'd recommendeded it to many people. He then told me that that book was 'practice' for this book, the book he always meant to write.I found that hard to believe, but the comment alone prompted me to let the book sit on a shelf FOR FOUR YEARS.I was waiting for a good time to read it AND afraid of being disappointed, both at the same time.
Not only was it better than I thought, it would be SIX STARS versus the previous book's 5!Snyder's ability to write not like he's telling you but almost like you're overhearing him tell someone else puts you right there, right in the conversation, right in the middle of the thought as it grows.I was always taught to write in a linear way, to go from this to this to this.Don Snyder knows how to not just take you there, but to carry you, to help you feel the doubts and insecurities along the way.In today's world where flaws are edited out and smoothed over Snyder shows them all--including his own as they pop up like stray dandelions. (This again sounds less like a story he polished to show others and more like that which he'd tell to only his closest friends.) In the end I struggled, not so much with putting it down as with facing the fact that this book would have to end--the greatest compliment I can think of giving any book. His look at the human condition helped give me a new definition of what good writing is really about.

Nostalgic and Bittersweet
This is a beautifully written book.Very moving and also very sad, but gratifying as well.Recently I was discussing this novel with someone.When I related the basic gist of the story, this person said, "Oh, sounds like the same idea as in TheNotebook, a novel by Nicholas Sparks."There is a slight similarity, but this is real.The story is real and the writing is real, not just sentimental, contrived fiction.I just listened to the audio book and loved it.I would recommend this to anyone. ... Read more

Isbn: 0345427696
Subjects:  1. Biography & Autobiography    2. Biography / Autobiography    3. Biography/Autobiography    4. Literary    5. Personal Memoirs    6. Biography & Autobiography / Literary   

Drinking the Rain
by Alix Kates Shulman
Average Customer Review:
Paperback (01 June, 1996)
list price: $12.95
US | Canada | United Kingdom | Germany | France

Reviews (15)

A passionate, intimate memoir
Ten years ago Shulman went to her family's primitive cabin on Long Island, Maine, for a summer of solitude. A New Yorker through and through, she was apprehensive and fearful, but also excited and determined. Her life was vaguely dissatisfying and she was looking for a change.

Reading her memoir is like having a personal conversation with the author. Her tone is personal and intimate. When she stands back for a moment, picturing herself through a passing stranger's averted eye - a middle-aged lady in floppy hat and mismatched tennis shoes, gathering weeds in a basket - we too are startled and amused, having been looking from the inside out.

Shulman, recognized for her novels and feminism, reaches her cross-roads at age 50. Her children are grown, her relationship with her husband is a distant truce, the feminist movement has stalled, and her life is overfull of busyness.

But the birth of a new passion in her life is serendipitous. Always an adventurous cook, she finds her lengthy trips to the uninspiring island grocery a jarring intrusion on her pleasing solitude and a chore contrary to her new motto, "Do only what you like, nothing you don't!"

From years before she remembers mussel gathering, one of the few pleasures of the hurried vacations she had always hated. In those years, with small children and a domineering, orchestrating husband, the summer cabin, with no electicity or plumbing had meant a round of endless drudgery.

Now that she has only to please herself, mussel hunting is merely the first of her pleasures. Around her a world unfolds. Armed with Euell Gibbons and determination, she reaps the bounty of wild things, spending her days in exploration and discovery.

She finds in herself a new tranquility and simplicity which, as she feared, is invaded by New York's cosmopolitan pace and abundance. The reader is a bit ahead of her here, exhorting Shulman to enjoy what the city has to offer, just as she enjoys her island.

And when the author does absorb our advice (given to her by an old childhood friend at a party), she embraces it fully, applying this tactic to her whole life. Thus, when she accepts a position at the University of Colorado, she plunges into an exploration of New Age mysticism, health foods, mountain hiking and Buddhism. You don't have to share her interests to find her open-minded approach admirable.

There are upheavels too. Her children are less than thrilled in the back-to-nature changes in their New Yorker mother. Her husband shatters a summer's idyll at the island by sending divorce papers. And romantic love, with all its joy, threatens to disrupt her solitary self. As I said, you don't have to agree.

But through it all, Shulman struggles to maintain her equilibrium, making deliberate choices, letting her thoughts range free. She is enchanted by the wholeness of things - how all of nature interrelates - and then dismayed as pollution from the cities and radiation from Chernobyll threatens her island haven.

This is a memoir of continuous awakening and endless dialogue with the self and the world. There's helplessness, anger, hope and love and inspiration. It's a joy to read.

Stay with it
I must confess I almost couldn't get through "Drinking the Rain". Kates Shulman's account of a citified feminist's return to nature seemed an unintential parody, not helped by the comically overstated title. But midway through Ms. Shulman's story I became hooked. What seemed at first a pretentious and self-important rant transformed into a thoughtful and evocotive musing on what it is to be an artist. Ironically, it's only after Shulman returned to the city (and later goes to teach in Colorado) that the book came alive for me. Her descriptions of dinner with an old feminist friend left me teary eyed at their simple eloquence, and the descriptions of a snowy Colorado reunion with her kids kept me reading. By the end, I adored this story.

drinking the inspiration
Shulman raises many provocative ideas in her memoir.Among the ones thataffected me most profoundly are Solitude, Rebirth, Self-Sufficiency, andthe utilization of the resources in your own environment.

If you've everfeared that the possibilities for excitement, adventure, wonderment, orsimply change- shrink with age, you will be inspired by Shulman's resolveto continue searching for meaning and discovery in her life at fifty andwell beyond.What courage to embark on a new and thoroughly independentlife after decades of playing the role of wife and mother.But Shulman isnot a super human.She does not possess some rarefied quality that wecould not all find nestled in our spirit.We walk with her down the beachof her island past a barking and threatening dog.She has always held anirrational fear of dogs though never has she actually had a bad experiencewith one.Her instinct is to turn back, but instead she contemplates thenature of fear and how best to conquer it, and she decides the best thingis to face it.So she continues on, if somewhat cautiously.

This bookwill mark you, if you let it. I come away feeling better equipped to facemy barking island dogs.I am more observant and appreciative of mysurroundings.And I will never see myself as stuck in a single way oflife, never let the light of change and possibility elude me. ... Read more

Isbn: 0140255842
Sales Rank: 227583
Subjects:  1. 20th century    2. Authors, American    3. Biography    4. Biography & Autobiography    5. Biography / Autobiography    6. Biography/Autobiography    7. General    8. Homes and haunts    9. Maine    10. Shulman, Alix Kates    11. Women   

Sleeping with Cats: A Memoir
by Marge Piercy
Average Customer Review:
Hardcover (24 December, 2001)
list price: $25.95
US | Canada | United Kingdom | Germany | France

Reviews (9)

Painful truthfulness
Marge Piercy is well-known for her poetry and for her semi-science fiction novel "Woman on the Edge of Time." She has won literary awards and is certainly an American woman writer of great note. Her honesty and brutal clarity in rendering her memoirs is that more startling, as much of it is unpleasant and she hardly spares herself.

Piercy grew up in a lower class Detroit neighborhood, and was brutally beaten by her father while her needs as an adolescent girl were pretty much ignored by her mother. She found love in girl gangs, had illicit sex with both girls and boys, and yet was accepted to University of Michigan, the best public university in the state. Her career there was as an outsider--she was not the typical well-off, middle class sorority or dorm co-ed with cashmere sweaters and pearls. Instead, Piercy started the Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) and wrote, winning the prestigious Hopwood writing award at U of M.

Her writing career spanned the times she belonged to communes, then became disenchanted with the increasingly dogmatic Marxist left movement in the 60's. She bounced from Europe to New York to Boston, to Cape Cod, now her home.

In all her writing, Piercy has an uncanny ability to describe her minute observations of place and feeling, a gift attributes to her emotional mother. She expresses the anger at her distant and brutal father, whom she obliquely blames for her mother's death (she had a stroke and he did not call the ambulance service until he had meticulously picked up every fragment of a fluorescent bulb she had broken during her fall.)Her "open marriage" is described with all the ambiguity of such a relationship.

No one writes more grittily, more deeply observant than Piercy--the parts of "Woman on the Edge of Time" where the main character is struggling to leave an insane asylum, are so realistic and troubling, it helps to know Piercy from her memoirs to better understand her craft. If you like Piercy's writing, this memoir is a fine way to get to know her and to gain a better understanding of how she creates her fiction and poetry.

this book needs some editing
I was attracted to this book because I'm a woman and a cat-lover.I do not know anything about the author but based on review quotes was expecting excellent, entertaining writing.The content is engaging enough, but I noticed that she seems to retell details more often than I suspect she intended.Forgetfulness perhaps?In addition, many paragraphs seem poorly constructed, with her rambling on as though she's just thinking aloud.I'm just a bit disappointed and would not be likely to seek out her other works based on this.

Whining is not an attractive quality,
even in a writer of Piercy's stature. By the time I was a quarter of the way through the book, I was bored. By the time I was finished, I was ready to write Piercy off . . . but then I re-read her poetry, and was hooked again.So what if I didn't enjoy the story of her life?She probably wouldn't enjoy mine, either.But seriously, this is one autobiography that I'd rather pass in favor of the fiction and poetry. ... Read more

Isbn: 0066211158
Sales Rank: 572090
Subjects:  1. 20th century    2. Anecdotes    3. Authors, American    4. Biography    5. Biography & Autobiography    6. Biography / Autobiography    7. Biography/Autobiography    8. Cats    9. Cats - General    10. General    11. Literary    12. United States    13. Women    14. Women cat owners    15. Piercy, Marge   

A Country Year : Living the Questions
by Sue Hubbell
Average Customer Review:
Paperback (26 April, 1999)
list price: $13.00 -- our price: $10.40
(price subject to change: see help)
US | Canada | United Kingdom | Germany | France

Reviews (24)

an untrimmed state....
Sue Hubbell's A Country Year:Living the Questions is a classic nature/autobiography.

Written by a remarkable woman - a fifty-year-old ex-librarian and survivor of an unsettling divorce, a beekeeper and self-taught naturalist living alone in the Missouri Ozarks - this magical book is elegant and lovely.In essays as fresh and entrancing as the wilderness they describe, Hubbell testifies to the wholeness and serenity available to those who live 'in an untrimmed state.'

Is This Outdated Nature Writing Really Honest?
Is it realistic to expect that a frightened wild bird would find the touch of a human hand soothing?Isn't it now common knowledge that orioles take large amounts of fruit and nectar in their diets?Don't most naturalists know that fawns have no scent?Why would a Black Walnut Tree need help keeping other trees from growing up around it, when its leaves and nutshells left on the ground inhibit competition naturally?If you honk your horn at a Bobcat caught in the headlights, might that not help condition the animal to fear and flee from such a deadly situation?If you keep your pets indoors or on a leash, mightn't they be unable to attack and interbreed with local wildlife?Isn't it unrealistic to expect a rabbit laden with bacteria from cat bites and scratches to survive very long?Why would anyone who admits they don't like to cook and seldom do, think the rest of the world is interested in any of their recipes? If this book is so "honest", why is the author silent on the subject of her own sexuality after her divorce?Don't the facts sound a little sanitized when, "During our life together [Paul] assembled a large collection of tools, and when he left, he passed them on to me"?For someone who makes such a big deal about cutting firewood, don't you just have to wonder what modern facilities she has for laundry, bath and hot water?Mightn't it be a bit misleading to call your home a "cabin" with all the primitiveness that word implies, when you have electricity, a telephone, a refrigerator, and probably also a police-scanner and a computer with internet access?Are we supposed to believe this woman is really living on the edge of poverty when, although the income from the honey business is meager, she probably has a tidy nest egg after a thirty-year marriage to a tenured college professor?Are we expected to believe that a woman who doesn't know how to use a ratchet-wrench makes her own bee keeping equipment including a power uncapper, honey extractor, and gas-powered beeblower?
Believe it or not, I'm a woman, and I liked this book.I'm just not ready to rave and gush about how fantastic it is.Since we don't have enough good, modern nature writing, go ahead and read this, but realistically evaluate the training and background of the author and consider when the book was written before you take every word as gospel.

A quiet, thoughtful, and often very funny book
When Sue Hubbell's long-term marriage fell apart, and she found herself in mid-life living alone as a beekeeper on a farm in the Ozarks. Her book is ostensibly set within a single year, but that's only the framework for the series of essays that form a beautiful chronicle of the seasons of one's life, the seasons of nature, the seasons of tame and wild animals, and the seasons of living on a farm.
Her inquiring mind constantly asks "Why?" questions, and the essays are her attempts to answer them. She's a former librarian, so she's articulate, academic, intellectual - but also quietly hilarious, such as her description of trying to think like a chicken in order to coax her hens to sleep inside the coop instead of perched on the trees.
Buy a copy for yourself, and buy one for your best woman friend who is heading into her middle years and may also be Living the Questions.
... Read more

Isbn: 0395967015
Sales Rank: 69204
Subjects:  1. Country life    2. Essays    3. General    4. Missouri    5. Natural History    6. Nature    7. Nature / Field Guide Books    8. Nature/Ecology    9. Ozark Mountains    10. Nature / General