Everyone’s read [amazon_link id=”074324754X” target=”_blank” ]The Glass Castle [/amazon_link]right? I loved this book, completely and totally. I’m not sure, but I think I’ve read it more than once. But yesterday, I checked it out of the library again. It’s time to read it for a different reason.
My plan with it this time is to read it very closely and try to see if I can use it as a model for my own novel/memoir.
I’m also using [amazon_link id=”0767915054″ target=”_blank” ]Zippy[/amazon_link] by Haven Kimmel for the same purposes. In contrast to the Glass Castle, which seems to follow a time line with a start-to-finish approach, Zippy has no particular narrative arc.
Instead, it is a series of stories about growing up in Indiana, and of course, so much more. Somehow by the time the book is over, I swear I grew up with Zippy. I just love how she pulls it off but I’m still trying to dissect what exactly she does that works so well.
I have a third book I’m using as a guide, [amazon_link id=”0385720890″ target=”_blank” ]Sister Crazy [/amazon_link]by Emma Richler. This has a different approach altogether and I still haven’t quite figured out what it is.
Three books, all apparently about growing up.
But all, quite different in their approach and framework to how they get from there to here. And yet, I’m using them to model for structure. Hmmm….
I’m sure a clever person would pick just one of them to work with…I’m sure that’s exactly what a clever person would do.
I’d read The Glass Castle a couple of times and felt sort of “eh” about it. Then I had to teach it last semester and realized what a really powerful narrative arc Walls achieved.
Finding myself fascinated by the idea of examining three apparently very different frameworks to figure out a structure for a new thing—much to think about here.
Hi Elizabeth,
Thanks for stopping by. I have to say, that in spite of being such an avid reader all my life, it is only now (that I’m trying to write something substantial) that I really ‘get’ how hard it all is.
I guess it’s like anything…it looks easy, until you try to do it yourself 🙂 Reading each of these books closely has really opened up my eyes. Now I just hope I can somehow incorporate these new realizations into my own writing.
Will add those to my list! I’m currently reading Driving with Dead People – memoir of a girl growing up in an eccentric unforgettable Baptist family. Lots of black humour but again chronological in structure
I absolutely love that title. Considering I have huge chunks of writing about all the dead people in our family photo album, I’m pretty sure I can relate. I’ll add that to my list.
Of course, there is also Renovating Heaven ….
Well of course! The reason it’s not on this particular pile is because it actually reads like a real book…with a beginning, middle and end. I seem incapable of doing anything besides a collage-paste-up of random bits. It’s too daunting to even aspire to an actual narrative arc like Renovating Heaven pulls off.
Thanks for adding some more books to my to-be-read list! I hope you find the enlightenment you need from them 🙂
I bet your list of books is becoming a never-ending book-length pile of pages like mine 🙂
Not enough time to read them all but I keep trying…