The Merry Recluse: A Life in Essays [Hardcover]

Caroline Knapp (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 7, 2004

Caroline Knapp's was one of this country's most intelligent, graceful, and humorous voices in memoir. Her readers are known not just for their number, but for their intense connection to her work. In Drinking: A Love Story, she homed in on the often unspeakable fears and longings that led to her alcoholism and back again. In Pack of Two, she trained her eye on the bonds between humans and animals. And in Appetites: Why Women Want, she brought her rigorous scrutiny to the ways in which culture shapes a woman's body and her hunger.Now, with The Merry Recluse: A Life in Essays, Knapp shows us that her vision through a wider lens is as brilliant as through a narrow one. This collection of essays spanning fifteen years paints the fullest picture of this wonderful writer that we've yet seen, but it's also a remarkably full portrait of a writing life, showing how the same themes can engage--and expand--a writer over a lifetime. Here are her major preoccupations, with work and love, with growth and loss, with distance and intimacy. Solitude, shyness, cereal for dinner, the fine line between boredom and lust, why women ask stupid questions, mastering the art of healthful self-deception--subjects that are universally poignant while charming, funny, and incisive--are explored in both long, thoughtful pieces and light, hilarious essays.

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

When she died in 2001 at the age of 42, Knapp was just hitting her stride as a journalist, as a writer, as a woman. She would also have added the titles "friend," "daughter," and "ex-addict" to the list. This posthumous collection of essays once published in contemporary magazines and columns originally written for staid newspapers reveals the arc of her professional career and exposes a maturation process that came at great personal cost. Unafraid to tackle subjects both universal and individual, public and private, Knapp expressed her views with a unique outlook that, paradoxically, resonated with legions of loyal readers who recognized some part of themselves in her. Whether she was writing about her own alcohol addiction and anorexia, or the death of her parents and life's daily frustrations, Knapp's talent lay in her utter guilelessness, her open accessibility, and her disarming ability to bare it all. The loss of her is enormous, and her last words are to be treasured. Carol Haggas
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Review

"Knapp recounts her love affair passionately. In paragraphs where she nostalgically remembers sloshing vodka over ice, the sensuality of her language can give you a contact high."

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 304 pages
• Publisher: Counterpoint (April 7, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1582433135
• ISBN-13: 978-1582433134
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.8 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (19 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #846,963 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

30 of 30 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Intelligent and insightful, August 4, 2004

By 

wkbee (NY, NY USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Merry Recluse: A Life in Essays (Hardcover)

These essays are, in a way, a summary of Knapp's other books, dealing with her struggles with anorexia and alcoholism; the death of both her parents from cancer; her relationships with both her twin sister and her beloved dog; her fondness for new shoes and endless games of computer solitaire; the horror of bad-hair days and bad-all-over-body days. The writing is elegant and clear. Though the essays are based on her own experience, there is no impression of narcissism. Knapp had a talent for searching her hard-won self-knowledge for those kernels of truth that apply to so many of us. By the end of the book, you'll feel as though she could have been a friend of yours, if only you had been that fortunate. One curiosity -- although she explored so many addictions and preoccupations in print, it seems she never addressed the smoking that, as her mother warned her (in "Drinking: A Love Story," a book that I also recommend), eventually killed her.

33 of 34 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Remembering Caroline, November 29, 2004

By 

Starfishin (Right Here) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Merry Recluse: A Life in Essays (Hardcover)

Actually, Caroline died in 2002.Her obituary in the Boston Phoenix read in part: CAROLINE KNAPP, who for 11 years worked for the Phoenix newspapers - first as a staff writer and editor, and then as a contributing columnist - died on Monday, June 3, from complications arising from lung cancer. She was 42.

As a writer, Caroline had a signature style. Her grace sometimes masked the broad stretch of her range. As a reporter, she was dogged and inventive....And as an editor, she balanced exacting standards with a gift for nurture.

But it was as a columnist and a memoirist that she made her mark. She launched a feature called "Out There," which is now written by several contributors, but which in her time at the Phoenix was her special preserve. Whether she was writing about politics, feminism, or the perilous state of modern relationships, the tone was unmistakably her own. Reserved in person, she was ruthlessly self-revelatory at the keyboard. The common denominator of her private and public selves was her wry sense of humor.


Caroline died at Mount Auburn Hospital, where she was closely attended during the days before her death by her family, her friend and companion of many years, photographer Mark Morelli, and her dog, Lucille. Caroline and Mark were married in May, a few weeks after she was diagnosed."

[...]

16 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Wonderful Reminder of a Talented Writer..., May 8, 2004

By 

Deborah A. Broeker "Literature Lover" (Mountain View, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Merry Recluse: A Life in Essays (Hardcover)

Imagine having thought that a cherished friend was lost to you forever, and then to have her return unexpectedly for a brief time, knowing this is to be her last visit ever. For anyone who loved Caroline Knapp's writing, and mourned her premature death just two years ago, this book filled with her essays is just such a lovely gift. As with much of her other work, including "Drinking, A Love Story", and "Pack of Two", she had an amazing talent for intricately expressing her thoughts in an unusually accessible manner. While most of her essays focus on "women's issues", her reflections and sentiments are undoubtedly universal. Thank you to her editor, Sandra Shea, for giving us another chance to pull up a chair and share some intimate moments with this extraordinary writer.