I read the review; the book sounds good. It is a memoir in which a young woman contemplates years’ worth of her diaries. The reviewer says it captures the impossibility of recording one’s life. As someone who also writes memoir, I would like to read it.
There is a world in which I will. There is another world in which I would have written it, and a world in which I will write a similar book. For now, though, the fact of the book’s existence, that the author wrote it and that the reviewer commended it, is enough.
That someone in a different world took the matter of her experience and transformed it into words that draw me.
That I believe will draw me.
That will mirror myself back to me.
The awareness of others who seem to perceive emotions similar to mine, to notice what I notice, who I imagine might respond not too differently from the way I would, is a great comfort to me. Some of them are my friends or will become my friends. Others create the work — the writing, the imagery, the music — that I lose myself in and long for. That affirms me.
So whether I read the young woman’s memoir or not, I am happy knowing that the book has been written. For now, it is all I need.
~ Susan Hodara
There is a world in which I will. There is another world in which I would have written it, and a world in which I will write a similar book. For now, though, the fact of the book’s existence, that the author wrote it and that the reviewer commended it, is enough.
That someone in a different world took the matter of her experience and transformed it into words that draw me.
That I believe will draw me.
That will mirror myself back to me.
The awareness of others who seem to perceive emotions similar to mine, to notice what I notice, who I imagine might respond not too differently from the way I would, is a great comfort to me. Some of them are my friends or will become my friends. Others create the work — the writing, the imagery, the music — that I lose myself in and long for. That affirms me.
So whether I read the young woman’s memoir or not, I am happy knowing that the book has been written. For now, it is all I need.
~ Susan Hodara