A Los Angeles Times Book Review Best Book of 1996
'Without books how could I have become myself?' In this wonderfully written meditation, Lynne Sharon Schwartz offers deeply felt insight into why we read and how what we read shapes our lives. An enchanting celebration of the printed word.
Schwartz (The Fatigue Artist, 1995, etc.) is known as a novelist whose strong, fiercely felt prose—whose good prose—often fails to cohere in a fully realized novelistic framework. This memoir, alas, is no different. Reading is a great subject. Not nearly enough books or essays (outside academia, anyway) have been devoted to it, and certainly very few have achieved the literary immortality of, say, Walter Benjamin's essay "Unpacking My Library." Because of this, there is a temptation here to be uncritical and lap up the not-insignificant charms of Ruined by Reading—as Schwartz (in a narrative ranging from childhood to success as an author) laps up Heidi, A Little Princess, Martin Pippin in the Daisy Field, etc. The problem is that very little of enduring satisfaction results. Schwartz's reminiscences are centered largely on her child and teenage self—and childhood can be a breeding ground for adult sentimentality and excess. The book will have resonances for many readers—but mainly short- lived ones. Why? Haste (or a sense of it, anyway). Self- indulgence. The good stuff is terrific—as when the college-age Schwartz recommends Kafka to her parents, then receives a phone call from her father reporting a distinct difference in their readings and demanding to know what The Trial was really about. "My heart leaped," she writes. "This was exactly what I wanted. We should theorize this way every waking hour."
Best for an unsophisticated audience of book-lovers: The sophisticates may feel that they could have done it better.
As a self-confessed readaholic, I was immediately drawn to "Ruined by Reading: A Life in Books" by Lynne Sharon Schwartz. What did the author mean by this title? What would her story be about? Who could consider reading a ruination of life? After asking myself these questions, I, of course, HAD to get the book. <BR/><BR/>While reading Schwartz's book, I felt wrapped up in a warm blanket. So many times, I thought "Wow. That's me." Without preaching, Schwartz understands and imparts in circular thought how those of us who read almost compulsively and obsessively feel. The story of her love affair with books in some ways reflects how I feel about my reading and it was nice to realize that I'm not alone in my 'illness'.<BR/><BR/>In the end, I think the title is meant to grab the attention of those who will appreciate its sometimes sharp and biting humor and irony. Everything we read changes us in some small or not so small way. And those of us who read in volume do indeed live 'a life in books'.
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Overview
A Los Angeles Times Book Review Best Book of 1996
'Without books how could I have become myself?' In this wonderfully written meditation, Lynne Sharon Schwartz offers deeply felt insight into why we read and how what we read shapes our lives. An enchanting celebration of the printed word.