THE BOOK THAT CHANGED MY LIFE:
71 Remarkable Writers Celebrate the Books That Matter Most to Them
Edited by Roxanne J. Coady & Joy Johannessen
197 pp. Gotham Books $17.50
Reviewed by Bob Sanchez
If you asked me to name a single book that changed my life, you’d hear a lot of ums and ahs and throat clearings before I eventually coughed up a useful reply. “Which book, you say? Um, well, all of them, really.” And a lot of help that prevarication would be.
Connecticut bookstore owner Roxanne Coady and editor Joy Johannessen posed that question to almost six dozen notable writers.
Some of the contributors seemed tempted to be vague, and I picture the editors tactfully nudging them to please be specific. In the book, they all were. In any event, the result is a charming collection of essays about books that have touched lives, from existentialism to childrens’ fare. (Picture Sisyphus pushing the rock up the hill while muttering, “I think I can. I think I can.”) Each is nicely written, though most are far too short, with some running barely over a page. It felt like being given only a lick of an ice cream cone when you wanted a big, sloppy bite. Still, the taste of 71 flavors was always good.
The choices are interesting and sometimes unexpected. National Book Award winner Sherwin B. Nuland writes that when he was seven years old, Ab the Cave Man ”changed my notion of what the printed word can do.” A Room of One’s Own inspired Anita Diamant to write her own novel, The Red Tent. Frank McCourt writes a blarney-filled account of being a sick child introduced to Henry VIII. He admits he didn’t understand it, but Shakespeare’s words were like ”jewels in my mouth.” Author Edward Sorel-born Edward Schwartz-liked the main character, Julien Sorel, in The Red and the Black (and apparently disliked his father) so much that he legally changed his name to Edward Sorel. Now that’s a life-changing book!
On the other hand, some choices are not surprising at all. Doris Kearns Goodwin praises The Guns of August for teaching her how to tell a story, how to bring characters to life, and to fall in love with one’s subject. Linda Greenlaw has made her living with fishing and writing about fishing in New England, so her mention of The Perfect Storm follows naturally for those acquainted with her work. ”It literally changed my life by bringing with it the opportunity to write my own books,” she writes. As do other contributors, she mentions other books as well-The Odyssey, she wryly notes, is ”a book that made me regret having learned to read.”
The contributors are an impressive group, a great many of whom apparently passed through editor Coady’s bookstore. They include Senators Lieberman and McCain, Patricia Cornwell, Alice Hoffman, Tracy Kidder, Wally Lamb, Jacques Pépin, and many others who have word power if not necessarily star power.
By its nature, this book is an easy read, and its weakness is also its strength: a little background, a title, a reason, and done. You get the writer’s point and move on to the next essay, never having to suffer through eye-glazing analysis. There’s no need to read the essays in order; jump around and sample them, but do get to them all in your own good time. A common theme runs through all the essays: books change people, and different books leave their marks at different stages in people’s lives.
Ordinarily, I would hope for an index in a non-fiction book, but editors Coady and Johannessen do better, providing a list of titles mentioned by the contributors (many named more than one) as well as the editors’ own extensive reading lists. You could spend the rest of your life reading these books.
The Book That Changed My Life may not change yours, but it could lead you to a book that does. Unlike Greenlaw’s take on Homer’s ancient opus, it will make you glad you learned to read. By the way, it would also be an excellent holiday gift for your favorite bookworm.
Bob Sanchez is Associate Editor of the Internet Revoew of Books.