Customer Reviews

The Merry Recluse: A Life in Essays

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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.

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."

[...]

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.

Caroline Knapp died in 2002 of lung cancer at the horribly early age of 42. She was almost my exact contemporary in age. I nearly died of a diabetic coma at about the same time, so there is a weird little echo of experience and sorrow when I think about her. I was already familiar with her funny book of faux-advice, "Alice K.'s Guide To Life", but I hadn't yet read all of her really great essays that are collected in "The Merry Recluse." (The title is a state of being to which I also aspire.) She wrote all of these terrific little pieces in the 1990's when she was at the height of her powers and apparently at a level of maturity and confidence that allowed her to look back with considerable wisdom. Caroline suffered intensely earlier in her life from anorexia, depression and anxiety, alcoholism and shyness. But she writes about these with clarity, grace, much much humor and tough-mindedness. She didn't wallow in victimization like so many do; above all she wanted to understand. In the long hot summer of 2006 perhaps my current fvorite essay in this volume is "Endless (and Endless) Summer", about how much she hated summer, how she preferred autumn, and how weird she felt when she saw all the summer-adoring people around her. Believe me Caroline; you read my mind. As you did over and over again in this book, as if we were friends who never met. And I'm seriously going to miss your wonderful, tenderly witty yet serious voice.

Caroline Knapp's fifth memoir was published posthumously after the author died from cancer at age forty-two. The book consists of newspaper and magazine essays written over a fifteen year period. The columns are presented thematically rather than chronologically, in sections about family relationships, grief/recovery/sobriety, the state of the world, and personal reflections.

Early essays discuss female friendships, girl crushes, and Knapp's relationship with her mother and father. She was a raging, active alcoholic when both passed away within a year of one another. Knapp also covers ground on two topics she's renowned for--anorexia (as described in her memoir Appetites: Why Women Want) and alcoholism (as described in Drinking: A Love Story). Her assays on recovery provide additional insight and reflection beyond what was in her other books. None of the essays were published during her active alcoholic period in the early 1990's (only one from 1989, a long essay about her eating disorder, was published prior to Knapp's sobriety).

In the lighter essays, Knapp returns to the familiar subject of her dog. One October 1998 piece for the Boston Phoenix is a rebuttal to Ron Rosenbaum's New York Observer column asserting the superiority of his cat over Knapp's dog. Other essays on the state of the world cover topics ranging from Linda Tripp s betrayal of her friend Monica Lewinsky, to life as an office drone in corporate America, to home decoration. The ruminations on life are hit-or-miss, and the fluffier pieces at the end aren't written as powerfully as Knapp's solid essays on addition and relationships.

If Knapp wasn't already a bestselling author of wide renown, this essay collection would be of little popular interest. The true gems are the essays which expound on the topics of her earlier works Drinking and Appetites. I recommend this book only to admirers looking for additional material from this accomplished and well-spoken woman.

Ms Knapp shows a remarkable facility to delve into various aspects of life and make them fascinating for the reader. She explores twindom, eating disorders,alcoholism and relationships in addition to various other subjects, with an equal facility to expand one's understanding on these topics. She also has a a wonderful sense of humor underlying even her most serious observations. I continue to enjoy this book despite the few topics in which I have no interest.

(...)Knapp's willingness to thoroughly examine herself and her demons-- drinking, anorexia-- has provided many of us with a precious resource and lifeline in dealing with our own troubles. Her insights on her relationship with her parents, and her close bond to her dog, provide the reader with thoughtful reflections on the nature of human connections.

Oh--how I wish she were still with us. Caroline Knapp is one of the best writers I've had the pleasure to become acquainted with. Humor, diversity, insight and fierce and fearless exploration of common human issues are just a few examples of what make her writing irreplaceable. Read through her book excerpts, columns and articles from newspaper and magazine in this wonderful collection. You will laugh, cry, reflect and ponder life's mysteries. Whether those mysteries be big or small makes no difference--Caroline manages to explore them all in the most meaningful and unique ways.
If you are a woman I absolutely guarantee this book will strike a chord in you.
If you are a fan this is simply a must-read.
If you are just meeting her then this is the perfect first introduction to our marvelously intelligent, dearly missed, late, great Caroline Knapp.

I love Caroline Knapp. I have read all of her books, including Drinking: A Love Story, despite not having any problems with alcohol.
These essays are insightful, poignant, and they wonderfully express emotions that everyone can connect with. Caroline Knapp wrote with humor and seemed to invest her whole soul into all of her writing.
I disagree with the reviewer who said that some of the lighter essays were out of place, each essay provided a broader look of the author and allowed me the connection of humor as well as other connecting on more serious levels.
I especially liked Lucille vs Stumpy, Letter to Zoe and Speaking out for shyness.
I believe that anyone who enjoys good writing, reflective thinking and has a sense of humor will enjoy these essays.

The Merry Recluse shows Caroline Knapp at her best: writing about the highs and lows of addiction, humans bonding with dogs, the difficulties of being shy and the mixed blessings of time spent alone. Some of the essays are simply wonderful, such as "On Being a Twin," "My Canine, Myself" and "Speaking Out for Shyness." The quality of the book suffers from the inclusion of some her lighter lesser pieces that seem knocked off to fill a deadline for her column in the Boston Phoenix. The book would have been better if they'd been left out.

Knapp is best when she's exploring her own insecurities and losses. I wish she was still around to articulate what it's like to be a sensitive flawed woman trying to live an intelligent life.