I grew up in a house where creativity lived in the walls. Cartoons taped along cabinets, carved rocks on display, a small unicorn painting near the coffee cups, and a 4-foot plaster cast of illustrated ducks hung on our dining room wall. As a child, I didn’t realize how these surroundings shaped my memories. They …
This is my favorite kind of non-fiction book—a failure. Which is to say that it isn’t a biography of the influential mid-century poet Frank O’Hara, although it’s full of biographical detail and wise analysis of his life and work. It also doesn’t offer definitive answers about the fraught relationship between distant fathers and their underappreciated …
When I was on tour for my memoir, Meet Me Tonight in Atlantic City, I ended the tour in Atlantic City – a city that I hadn’t returned to since I was a child, accompanying my father while he gambled each day at Caesar’s Palace. In the title chapter, I write about him disappearing into …
My brother and I made our dad’s headstone ourselves. We bought a bag of Quikrete from Home Depot. We built a form, poured the cement, and carefully pressed metal letters in as the slab cured. We kept the words simple; Loyd’s name, relevant dates, and a fragment of his favorite poem. If you love something, …
Keggie Carew’s father had more than his share of mysteries about him, and her compelling account of trying to fill in the blanks makes for a very satisfying, poignant, and humorous read. Tom Carew’s extraordinary exploits during World War II include parachuting into France and Burma to lead resistance movements. Following years of estrangement during her father’s …
