✍✍✍
Joyride
Susan Orlean
368 Pages
Avid Reader Press/Simon & Schuster
While I believe that it was partially my own misperceptions that underlie my disappointment in this memoir, there were also aspects of the writing that contributed to my opinions. I do note that according to Goodreads, I seem to a bit of an outlier in giving Ms. Orlean’s memoir only three stars.
Honestly, I was looking for inspiration when I decided I wanted to read it. I did not know much, if anything, about Ms. Orlean’s writing and that was my fault, although I don’t know if it would have made any difference. I have always fancied myself a writer, even if I go for long periods of times without doing so. Now that I am retired, I would like to get back into writing but finding myself having difficulty restarting. I looked at Orlean’s memoir as something that might help me develop the impetus to start writing again, even though it is not a how-to book. It started out that way and the beginning of the book which focused on her struggles starting as a writer did provide me with some inspiration.
However, at some point, I realized that I wanted to skip parts. This memoir fell into the trap that many of them do: it became more about name dropping and celebrities that her writing put her into contact with. I was more interested in her struggles in the writing process or becoming a writer than the famous people she met along the way. I also was not necessarily invested in the types of subjects she wrote about and researched although I do not “blame” the memoir for that since it was own fault for not knowing her writing. Quite honestly, this would not have bothered me had the book not become more celebrity naming and a bit dry in parts.
I think that a reader who is more invested in nonfiction writing and/or more impressed by celebrities would enjoy this memoir a bit more than I did.
Thanks to NetGalley and Avid Reader Press/Simon and Schuster for providing me access to this advanced copy of this memoir in exchange for my honest opinions.
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