Jo Ann Beard

I'm very divided on this collection of short stories and essays. On the one hand, you can tell this is a writer who's honed her craft and writes impeccably, but on the other many of these stories are such raw accounts of uncomfortable topics it's hard to class them as enjoyable. Appreciable yes, but not overly fun.

For example, there's the story of the man who wakes up to find his apartment block is on fire and who jumps out the window. He survives but drops his cat in the process, who doesn't. Then there's the story of the woman dying of cancer, who opts for an assisted suicide, and another about the woman who's been attacked by stranger in her house and has to fight for her survival.

The stories feel incredibly real - you are in that burning building, you are watching that best friend suffer terribly through terminal cancer - and full points to Jo Ann Beard for pulling that off, but I don't think I really wanted to feel like a fly on the wall in these kind of circumstances.

The last few are essays based on Beard's own life - her husband leaving her for another woman, a girls' trip to India with a friend who's (also) dying of cancer. I preferred the short stories - I think Beard got a bit caught up in her craft in the essays, and they felt a little overdone at times.

3.5 stars - a very talented writer, but sad, difficult and uncomfortable subjects in these stories. I suspect Beard wants the reader to feel that discomfort, but... well, life's hard enough at times without living too graphically other people's tragedies.… (more)

In five or six writing courses I've taken, the instructors assigned “The Fourth State of Matter,” an essay from JoAnn Beard’s memoir The Boys of My Youth. I had to read it over and over. But there’s a reason why so many instructors assign it. Wow, what a piece of creative nonfiction! What occurs in the story is what happens when Beard was in the right place at the wrong time.

I’m not trying to be cryptic or coy. It’s best to let the stunning essay at the heart of the book speak for itself and take you by surprise.

This book is actually a collection of essays, but I call it a memoir because the essays are memoir pieces loosely placed together. Oddly, the effect is that of a more traditional memoir, although the book does not give the impression of one complete story.

I have to admit that the other essays don't move me the same way that "The Fourth State of Matter" does, but the book is so exquisitely written it's an experience readers shouldn't miss.
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