imaginarycircus

bookshop has a post about Aaron Hall who was murdered recently in the most brutal fashion. And there is virtually no media attention. I just looked on google news. Four hits? FOUR. Even though it is a horrible story, it made me sick to my stomach. I urge you to read about him. If we ignore hate crimes, well, that is a nasty can of worms.

I just read the memoir "Borrowed Finery" by Paula Fox. I believe it came out in 1991 so it isn't all that new and many of you have probably already read it. I liked it. I did not love it the way I loved Beryl Markham's memoir, "West with the Night." Fox's story is pretty incredible and her writing is spare and at times highly powerful. Occasionally the narrative was a bit too spare for me and I felt like she just stopped dead in the middle of a story because she just didn't feel like talking about it anymore. Not that I wanted her to gush and spill all the details and ramble on and on and navel gaze. Memoir is weird balancing act. You have to exploit your own personal history, but only include the relevant details. Too much information, too little, or histrionics will all lead to fail. I quite like Fox's memoir and recommend it. If nothing else it is really interesting to read about old Hollywood and NYC, and to read about Courtney Love's grandmother. (Paula Fox is Love's grandmother, but she gave Love's mother up for adoption.)