![the [blank] garden](https://theblankgarden.files.wordpress.com/2019/02/cropped-lucas-cranach-the-younger-6.png)
Dear Tove, In Childhood (2019, tr. Tiina Nunnally. Original: Barndom, 1967), your portrait of the artist as a working-class girl is no rosy picture. Born in an…… Read more “Childhood is dark and it’s always moaning”
Tag: Memoir
What if mothers refused to deny their womanhood
Dear Sibilla, A Woman, tr. Rosalind Delmar (1980. Original: Una donna, 1906) is a disturbing novella where rape, depression, suicide, adultery, and domestic violence are packed in…… Read more “What if mothers refused to deny their womanhood”
We were overcome with a kind of reverse vertigo,
Dear Annie, Reading The Years. tr. Alison L. Strayer (2017. Original: Les Années, 2008) feels very much like leafing through an old photo album, opening the contents of…… Read more “We were overcome with a kind of reverse vertigo,”
My name, here, is the name of my fracture
Dear Albertine, Astragal (1965) opens with a leap into the sky, from one kind of prison to another – but our protagonist doesn’t know it yet. The…… Read more “My name, here, is the name of my fracture”
It takes one word,
Dear Natalia, In Family Lexicon, tr. Jenny McPhee (2017. Original: Lessico famigliare, 1963), we have the impression of having been accepted as guests at your family’s dinner table: as we…… Read more “It takes one word,”
My Year in Nonfiction 2018 | Essay collections & Memoirs
Hi, folks, Continuing with the discussion started a couple of posts back, about nonfiction trends in my reading this year, I’ve also noticed that I read a good amount of…… Read more “My Year in Nonfiction 2018 | Essay collections & Memoirs”
The old brag of my heart
Dear Maggie, I Am, I Am, I Am (2017) reads like a reliquary of the string of moments your bragging heart, in a way or another, snatched…… Read more “The old brag of my heart”
It was a family of women buccaneers
Dear Gladys, The Matriarch (1924) is a family saga told in a fragmented way, weaving together vignettes, sketches and anecdotes that read like a series of family…… Read more “It was a family of women buccaneers”
The girl is a peasant warrior
Dear Xiaolu, Your book Nine Continents (2017, also published in the UK with the title Once Upon A Time in the East: A Story of Growing up) is…… Read more “The girl is a peasant warrior”
