A Postcard Memoir [Paperback]

Lawrence Sutin (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 1, 2003

Drawing upon his collection of quirky antique postcards, Lawrence Sutin has penned a series of brief but intense reminiscences of his "ordinary" life. In the process, he creates an unrepentant, wholly unique account about learning to live with a consciousness all his own. Ranging from remembered events to inner states to full-blown fantasies, Sutin is at turns playful and somber, rhapsodic and mundane, funny and full of pathos. Here you'll find tales about science teachers and other horrors of adolescence, life in a comedy troupe, stepfathering--each illustrated with the postcard that triggered Sutin's muse--and presented in a mix so enticingly wayward as to prove that at least some of it really happened.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Sutin's ingeniously constructed memoir uses duotone reproductions of postcards--by turns nostalgic, quaint or exotic--as Rorschach blots to evoke his deepest memories and feelings. In his previous memoir, Jack and Rochelle, Sutin chronicled the relationship between his father, a hero of the Jewish anti-Nazi resistance in Poland, and his mother, who escaped from a Nazi ghetto into the Polish woods where she hid and fought Germans; both emigrated to America at war's end. As the son of Holocaust survivors, Sutin, who was born in 1951 and grew up in Minneapolis/St. Paul, carried a special burden of grief and pain--and an urgent need to give his life meaning. Here he writes about typical events--Little League, his discovery of sex, bar mitzvah, past loves--but imbues his reminiscences of adolescent insecurity with a rueful, forgiving wisdom. After attending experimental Antioch College in the late '60s and a stint as a starry-eyed aspiring writer in Paris in 1973, maturity came with marriage, fatherhood and stepfatherhood. The postcards, which range from Michelangelo to Hollywood midgets to scenes of Bolivia, Idaho, Bombay and Bethlehem, are a screen on which Sutin projects his recollections, dreams and musings. But here's the catch: none of the people depicted in the postcards, and very few of the settings, are from Sutin's own life. Between each image and the corresponding text, odd juxtapositions and eerie or hilarious disjunctions fly like sparks, amplifying Sutin's memories and puncturing his wild fantasies. The past is what we make of it, he insists in this evocative if elusive postmodernist hall of mirrors. (May)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

Taking an unusual approach to memoir writing, Sutin, an award-winning memoirist and biographer, organizes episodes of his life around his antique postcard collection. An avid collector since a postcard of a mosque caught his eye in 1973, he sees the postcards as entries into his unconscious. Each one triggers a memory from Sutin's life, revealing a warm, reflective, and quirky personality. His wide-ranging subjects include such vignettes as a fifth-grade trip to a potato chip factory, visiting his father's place of business, working as a railroad lineman, and trying to quiet his crying infant daughter. These brief reminiscences, playful yet serious, sound realistic sometimes, fantastical at others. In their brevity, they reveal Sutin's considerable skill in capturing an incident or feeling in an enticing way with a witty, poetic sensibility. This book will appeal to those interested in exploring an innovative approach to the memoir. Recommended for public and academic libraries.DNancy R. Ives, SUNY at Geneseo Lib.
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 276 pages
• Publisher: Graywolf Press (April 1, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1555973043
• ISBN-13: 978-1555973049
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.5 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #191,723 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #11 in Books > Crafts, Hobbies & Home > Antiques & Collectibles > Postcards

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This man is a god!, April 13, 2000

By 

HungryMind (Sioux Falls, SD) - See all my reviews

This review is from: A Postcard Memoir (Paperback)

Anyone who has ever sent a postcard will be stunned and enthralled by this fascinating collection, which also includes his own intriguing inner dialogue. As a postcard connoisseur, I can only say, this man understands what it's all about!

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Great, sorta., September 28, 2007

By 

T. Porges (Washington DC, USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: A Postcard Memoir (Paperback)

Sutin has great ideas for books. I've now read four of his books, and finished all but this one because the topics were so good -- Buddhism in America, biographies of Aliester Crowley and Philip Dick, and this one, the postcard memoir, should have been a terrific book and I can't really see why it's not, except in all this time i've never warmed to Sutin as a writer, and can't quite figure out why.

This is a great book to get just because it's a great idea for a book, realized pretty well. Searching for one's lost family in the pile of crap that mounts up at the feet of the angel of History is another version of Dick's I-Ching driven narratives, or other books written with the Tarot or the Ouija board as coauthor. Whether you regard this as purely a chance operation or an embrace of synchronicity will have a lot to do with the outcome. I guess I wish Sutin had gotten more into the game of the thing than he did, but he had a memoir to get off his chest, and a family story, and kids of Holocaust survivors are always lugging that extra ton of inherited survivor guilt and whatnot: it makes them difficult, as friends. I have the same difficulties with Sebald. If you like Rings of Saturn, i'm pretty sure you'll like Sutin's memoir.

Most people witll find this small caveat pointless, and will enjoy this book for its multiple virtues. Highly recommended.

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars My favorite undiscovered writer, April 14, 2000

By 

HungryMind (Sioux Falls, SD) - See all my reviews

This review is from: A Postcard Memoir (Paperback)

I can't believe Lawrence Sutin has written another book - and this one is even better than the last two. What a fascinating way to structure the story of his life - by using favorite postcards that inspire memories of days gone by. I loved his book about Phillip K Dick - and the one he wrote with his parents, about their Holocaust experiences, is must-read stuff. But this one is the best yet - by turns fanciful, touching and downright funny. Bravo!