The Folded Clock: A Diary

Posted on 04 January 2018 by Heidi Julavits

Like many young people, Heidi Julavits kept a diary Decades later she found her old diaries in a storage bin, and hoped to discover the early evidence of the person and writer she d since become Instead, The actual diaries revealed me to possess the mind of a paranoid tax auditor Thus was born a desire to try again, to chronicle her daily life as a fortysomething woman, wife, mother, and writer The dazzling result is The Folded Clock, in which the diary form becomes a meditation on time and self, youth and aging, betrayal and loyalty, friendship and romance, faith and fate, marriage and family, desire and death, gossip and secrets, art and ambitionThe Folded Clock is as playful as it is brilliant, a tour de force by one of the most gifted prose stylists in American letters. Best Read Kindle ePUB The Folded Clock: A Diary Author Heidi Julavits – kino-fada.fr I have been seeing a lot of chatter about this book in various book reviews see below for a couple and as a constant journaler myself, I m always on the look out for diaries or journals by interesting people who share my passion I have not read anything by Heidi Julavits, so went in knowing absolutely nothing about her.At first, I ll admit, I thought she was a bit unstable Some of her admissions irked me and I found myself totally being a dick and judging her But then as I read I actually I have been seeing a lot of chatter about this book in various book reviews see below for a couple and as a constant journaler myself, I m always on the look out for diaries or journals by interesting people who share my passion I have not read anything by Heidi Julavits, so went in knowing absolutely nothing about her.At first, I ll admit, I thought she w...I m pretty sure that when I finally get around to reading Heidi Julavits fiction, I m going to enjoy it As evidenced by her diaryThe Folded Clock she s plenty intelligent, has a keen, self deprecatory sense of humor, and a vivid imagination There was something about her quirky, neurotic musings with this that just left me scratching my head I don t know if it was the fault of the book or just me, but I didn t quite love this as I d hoped.The diary format you d think would work well with I m pretty sure that when I finally get around t...Today when reading this book, I was reminded of a very difficult and troubled time in my younger days One notable day during this time, I observed to my then boyfriend the opinion that I d identified a particular song that perfectly reflected my current interior state, if that interior state were to have...I m honestly at about 3.5 stars for this one Reading this book every night was like having coffee with your smartest girlfriend I loved that about it Its weaknesses are mostly inherent to the diary format Writing a daily essay that connects to something you did that day is somewhat limiting, though Julavits certainly makes the most of it I m sure it sinteresting than a memoir approach to documenting a year in her life.On the other hand, with so many small looks into one moment or I m honestly at about 3.5 stars for this one Reading this book every night was like having coffee with your smartest girlfriend I loved that about it Its weaknesses are mostly inherent to the diary format Writing a daily essay that connects to something you did that day is somewhat limiting, though Julavits certainly makes the most of it I m sure it sinteresting than a memoir approach to documenting a year in her life.On the other hand, with so many small looks into one moment or conversation or experience in a day, the larger strokes of life get left behind a bit And the out of order presentation, with Julavits being in New York in winter, then Maine in Summer, then Italy in Fall, is interesting but I m not sure it works better than it would have chronologically It never gets past the gimmick phase into somethingnotable Still I like Julavits, and as a blogger I see g...Clever charming, off beat, both the book and the narrator Everytime I sat down with this book, I completely enjoyed myself Until one day I just couldn t stand it I realized it was sort of like reading an extended Facebook update, one long humble brag I have long blonde hair and am considered pretty, but gee really so and so is so much prettier I spend my summers in Maine and travel for extended periods of time to Italy, but I m just so ...When it comes to memoir and personal essays, I ve always believed the writer needs to get as specific as possible about his or her experiences If you try to write a bunch of generalizations in order to appeal to a wider audience, no one s going to relate to what you re saying It s only when you get really personal about what you ve been through that people can feel a kinship with you.I still believe that, but I feel like I now need to add a caveat If you re writing about your personal When it comes to memoir and personal essays, I ve always believed the writer needs to get as specific as possible about his or her experiences If you try to write a bunch of generalizations in order to appeal to a wider audience, no one s going to relate to what you re saying It s only when you get really personal about what you ve been through that people can feel a kinship with you.I still believe that, but I feel like I now need to add a caveat If you re writing about your personal experiences and want people to relate to them, you need to get as specific as possible unless you are Heidi Julavits.I mean, I honestly thought I would relate to Heidi Julavits We re close in age We both work with words in one way or another We both love Maine But as it turns out, her thoughts are so off the wall that I spent most of the book almost completely bewildered Is there seriously a person ...Today I finished this book, and wondered why those who seem to spend an extraordinary amount of time swimming in the pool of their own reflection can t seem to find the deep end of the pool.The title comes from Julavits daughter s mishearing of folded cloth but is apt in that it suggests time stretching and collapsing back on itself Indeed, one reason for starting the journal was that she felt time had started to pass differently from how it did in her childhood Whereas she once thought in terms of days, she realized in her forties that she now worked in weeks and months She was also inspired by digging out her adolescent diary though it was not nearly as profound or The title comes from Julavits daughter s mishearing of folded cloth but is apt in that it suggests time stretching and collapsing back on itself Indeed, one reason for starting the journal was that she felt time had started to pass differently from how it did in her childhood Whe...April 23Today I finished Heidi Julavits The Folded Clock and resumed a book I d barely started, Eckhart Tolle s A New Earth It s interesting how the disparate books you happen to be reading at or near the same time interact with each other in your brain and complement the experience of reading the other even for someone like me, whose book choices have followed no singular logic, pulled in many directions.I am working for a fewmonths at a bookstore before I start a Ph.D program in April 23Today I finished Heidi Julavits The Folded Clock and resumed a book I d ...The Folded Clock A Diary by Heidi Julavits is a smart, clever, entertaining work It is the fantasy diary we meaning, I suppose, people who think about such things at all and attempt to write diaries or journals or any of those accounts of daily life wish we wrote as opposed to what most of us actually come up with Julavits holds different moments of her life, past and present, up in the light and watches what happens as the light breaks through these moments It isfragmentary than a The Folded Clock A Diary by Heidi Julavits is a smart, clever, entertaining work It is the fantasy diary we meaning, I suppose, people who think about such things at all and attempt to write diaries or journals or any of those accounts of daily life wish we wrote as opposed to what most of us actually come up with Julavits holds different moments of her life, past and present, up in the light and watches what happens as the light breaks through these moments It isfragmentary than a memoir butcrafted than a diary I am struggling to write a r...

English
04 January 2018

Heidi Julavits