7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Loneliness, Laughter and Love ... it's all right here in Mirror Talk, September 16, 2011
This review is from: Mirror Talk (Kindle Edition)
Mirror Talk by Barbara Alfaro is a thoughtful book, rich in detail, humor and poignancy.
A memoir, Mirror Talk takes the reader on a gentle journey from childhood to retirement. The writing is graceful, the observations clever, sometimes painful but always honest.
Barbara Alfaro's gift of description is fresh and delightful: Coney Island's rollercoaster described as "a giant doodle against the sky." A lake where, as a child, she went fishing with her grandfather described as "spotted with lily pads." Or the conclusion that "Having a successful marriage proved a lot more difficult than geometry."
Barbara is an accomplished poet and playwright, and it shows in her flowing, rhythmic prose.
I loved the chapter "Summer Romance," which deals with family love and loss, and confides to the reader the event that changed Barbara's life - seeing her first play. She writes, "I don't remember the play. I do remember loving everything about it - the stage, lighting, sounds, costumes. It was as if the most beautifully illustrated book in the universe had suddenly come to life, giant-size and accompanied by music. I was instantly and permanently theatre mad."
Much of this witty and wistful memoir is devoted to the author's life in the theater. And her behind-the-scenes glimpses of New York's theatrical universe reveal the quirky, weird and wonderful people known as actors, directors and producers.
Her chapter "Make Mine Cognac" had me laughing out loud.
For a wise and gentle look at a tenderly-layered life, I recommend Mirror Talk, a memoir by Barbara Alfaro.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Baby Boomer's Reflections, August 17, 2011
This review is from: Mirror Talk (Kindle Edition)
Baby Boomers will recognize many of the stories in Mirror Talk: summer vacations at the beach, holidays at the grandparents, schoolmates influential in not always positive ways, schoolyard infatuations, romances, marriages, and those boring but necessary entry level jobs. Throughout these stories, Mirror Talk reflects the high goals the Boomers either created for themselves or that family and society foisted upon them. The lesson of Mirror Talk is that, while disappointment sometimes follows high expectations, disappointment is reserved for those strong-willed folks who have the courage to aim high. Disappointment is, therefore, a positive, representing humankind's eternal striving for personal betterment, albeit a sometimes unsuccessful striving. As such, Mirror Talk is not a generational piece, after all. Rather, it is a timeless tale of those persons who aim for the material heavens, but in so doing reach a heaven of a more immaterial sort.
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5.0 out of 5 stars
A poet's memoir...a small jewel, January 1, 2012
The best gifts often come in small packages, and Barbara Alfaro's slender 125-page memoir "Mirror Talk" is a small treasure. I can't decide whether this author is a poet who writes essays, or an essayist who writes poems; jump into the book and decide for yourself. "I exist," Alfaro writes, "in psychological not chronological time ... the dual curse and blessing of writers, the true time-travelers." These stories are full of warmth and wit, and the necessary brutal self-honesty that builds a series of individual recollections into an ever more deeply-moving whole. Life at the Rehearsal Club in Manhattan as an aspiring actress involves quite a bit of waitressing, and the perhaps requisite nervous breakdown ("I wasn't sure what to wear for a psychiatric evaluation"); a youthful first marriage full of promise inexplicably falls apart; and her Catholic-schooled girlhood seems to sabotage a career at ABC World News--"Barbara Walters told me I'd make a good producer one day if I would just become `more aggressive.'" But by finishing college in her forties at Goddard, (a hippie school full of "volatile vegetarians") she finally achieves confidence in her writing, and moves on to achieve recognition as a poet and playwright--capitalizing on her earlier theater degree and experience. As an author, Alfaro understands the connections that weave past and present together, and as a poet, illuminates this fabric with a vocabulary fresh and vibrant. There's an unflinching quality to her writing that reminds me of the late Irish journalist and broadcast personality Nuala O'Faolain's best-selling memoirs "Are You Somebody?" and "Almost There," but without the bitter edge. Alfaro takes poignant and leads it in the direction of humor (would you meditate on the Marx Brothers while getting an MRI?), in an easy, conversational style that makes for an engaging read. "I keep saying that I've never gotten anywhere," the author writes in the closing lines of "Mirror Talk." Oh, Barbara--you have!
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