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Reading My Father (2011)

by Alexandra Styron(Favorite Author)

3.67 of 5 Votes: 4

ISBN

1416591796 (ISBN13: 9781416591795)

languge

English

genre

Memoir & Autobiography

publisher

Scribner

review 1: phew. how dark this great writer's life was.........but how little was known of depression in the 1950's and 60's and how those with the mental illness coped daily through mechanisms such as avoidance of social obligations and alcohol. alexandra explains the explosive fits of anger of her father, the wandering off to be alone and much more as she and her siblings as children tried to make sense of it all and how it affected them as they grew to be adults. we need to know this stuff because so many of us lived it and are only understanding it now. i can relate. i am that daughter too.
review 2: If you love William Styron's work, you will love this book. So, I loved this book. I knew that he, like many authors, had his demons, but his daughter's book offers a per... morespective that only a close family member could provide. He could be sweet, brilliant, charming, irascible, withdrawn, selfish, and demanding, sometimes all in one hour. Like many writers, he struggled to come up with the next great novel and questioned his abilities to withstand that pressure and produce good writing. He fought depression and sometimes barely clung to sanity. But Alexandra Styron's portrait of her father and his work and her great effort to understand both is well written, informative, and would make her father proud. Having read most of his work, I really enjoyed reading about how writing each piece and its success or failure (in his or critic's eyes) affected him and his family. I also enjoyed reading about some of his personal relationships with other famous writers - the good old days with Norman Mailer and Truman Capote and many others. A great read for the Styron lovers among us. less

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