BitterSweetLife

Flash Review: Groovy Past Infuses Icy Present

I mentioned Larry Woiwode in an earlier post, but having finished What I Think I Did (awhile ago, actually), I'm awarding Woiwode's artfully written autobiography a strong A. When a "writer" records his own story, the burden to produce something wonderful is heavy, and Woiwode carries it off with exceptional poise and nuance in What I Think I Did.

Woiwode weaves his bohemian back story into a snowy, dangerous present in an effort to salvage his deepest memories--but in a way that fuses them to his moment-by-moment struggle for survival, his family, his new identity. Highly recommended, especially if you write.

Here's one of my favorite passages from What I Think I Did:

The patterns of the scribbled multitude of twigs and the matching gaps of designated light in sequence to the movement of the limbs were as much a song as mine. This was the earth, its trees in their multitude of beauty, twigs to branches to trunks, brimming with voices about to break into speech. I was in a grip greater than my mother's hand, and tears of laughter leaped out like the presences I expected to see.

One presence was here, I knew, as I turned with my face raised, in the trees and sky, and in the earth that held me as I turned. The presence had put all this in place to instruct me about myself and the complications of the love I felt for Him.