Dan Savage's essays have been featured on "This American Life," and he writes a sex advice column, "Savage Love," for a weekly paper in Seattle.
In this book, he talks about the long and winding path he and his boyfriend of ten years took to the altar. His Catholic mom was pushing for the union; his and Terry's 6-year-old son was against it ("Dad, boys don't marry boys!").
I enjoyed this frank and funny book, except for a few chapters where he talks about his mother's and grandmother's earlier lives. I would probably like those women's stories more if they were the ones telling them. But I read the book quickly, picking it up for a few minutes anytime in the day, not just at my usual reading time before bed.
I am grateful to people who are brave enough to write about their personal situations so candidly. I am more private. More of a scaredy cat. But it's because of honest memoirs like this that someone somewhere reads it for the first time and thinks, "Oh, another person has thought that/felt that/done that, too!" I felt the same way about Anne Lamott's "Operating Instructions," Eggers' "Heartbreaking Work" and countless other autobiographies and memoirs. I guess that's why I like the genre. To get peeks inside other people's brains and to see how they do life.
Favorite memoirs and biographies, anyone?
4 comments:
I could say Zippy, but Don recommended that to me and it's his favorite, so I shouldn't take it.
I liked reading Louis Leakey's autobiography White African. He's got quite the personality, and it shows not only in the events he relates from his life, but also in his style of writing and really everything he has to say. Great fun.
I saw another Leakey book at the library book sale this weekend and thought of you, Danika.
I wanted to get over there once I saw your post about the sale, but I never managed it. Shame--I'd like another Leakey book.
I own a book called The Secret of Water, that's kind of a Leak-y book.
HA!
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