Vaguely reminiscent of our very own Letters in the Mail, Michael Kimball’s new book, Michael Kimball Writes Your Life Story (on a postcard) reinvents memoir in a way that would have Montaigne going postal.
In his review, Joseph Riipi shares some of the itemized moments captured in Kimball’s collection, from facts that are clerical (“According to postcard #267, “Michael Kimball was born two weeks late.”), and facts that are humorous (“In third grade, Matt Bell #129 won a certificate for writing the best pirate story set in outer space.”), to facts that are heartbreaking. Riipi closes his review with three that are specific to Kimball’s life, not the people he interviewed for the collection:
“I had a writing professor who once said we all have a good book in us (our life story) … I wrote one for anybody who wanted one … I didn’t want anybody to feel their life story wasn’t interesting enough.”
Take a moment to wonder what your life story would look like squeezed into a postcard. Or just read about the lives of cats, horses, a rooster, and others in Michael Kimball Writes Your Life Story (on a postcard).
