With year of the monkey, patti smith spins dreams into topsyturvy words. Booktopia books of the year amazon best book of the month, june 2014. So why does my salinger year, joanna rakoffs new memoir not even fiction, and, most improbably of all, set in 1996 feel so akin to those earlier books. Joanna rakoffs new memoir, my salinger year, describes its authors trip. My salinger year, joanna rakoff s breezy memoir of being a bright young assistant in the mid1990s, opens with her decision to leave.
Joanna rakoffs delightful memoir, my salinger year, which has refreshed my. This might seem like a fairly obvious fact given that the blurb clearly says its a memoir, but somehow, until i read the authors introduction, i remained convinced that it was at least partly a fictionalised version of reality. As one might expect, the book is rich in namedropping, such as allen being. My salinger year is a memoir about literary new york in the late 1990s, a predigital world on the cusp of vanishing, where a young woman finds herself swept into one of the last great stories and entangled with one of the last great figures of the century. The shop is open 7 days a week, and any book they do not have in stock, they will be glad to order for you. My salinger year by joanna smith rakoff beaufort street. Joanna chronicles her first year in the real world working. My salinger year 9781408855508 by joanna rakoff and a great selection of similar new, used and collectible books available now at great prices. The title is slightly deceptive, in that the book is not truly about salinger. The paperback of the my salinger year by joanna rakoff at barnes. It was a fun read at times, and as a book loverenglishnerd myself, i enjoyed hearing about the authors real love of books. But her marriage to another writer, evan smith rakoff, was also in.
Dubray books is a family owned irish business consisting of eight branches around the country. Newsday a charming comingofage memoir that fizzes with youthful energy and bookish insight. My salinger year author joanna rakoff water street bookstore, inc. Carole king, joni mitchell, carly simon, and the journey of a generation. My salinger year by joanna smith rakoff riverbend books. This charming book is set in 1996, when joanna rakoff went to work at a literary agency, but the new york she evokes full of high rises and subways, fancy hotels and tiny apartments doesnt seem to have changed much since esther greenwood from the bell jar spent 1954 mooching around it.
Joanna rakoff s delightful memoir, my salinger year, which has refreshed my interest in salinger. Joanna rakoff is the literary worlds lena dunham, both of them witty, sensitive, elegantly baffled, zeitgeisthitting brooklyn ladies of their respective halfgenerations. Rakoff s second book is at once a picture of the new york publishing scene on the eve of the digital age, the personal story of a young writer finding her voice, and a. My salinger year is joanna rakoffs account of her first job in a new york publishing agency. Journalist and author joanna rakoff tells readers about her first postcollege job. Though rakoff never names it in her memoir, my salinger year, the.
I saw the movie before i read the book, and it amazed me how little had changed. I fell in love with my salinger year like the young joanna rakoff falls in love with the books in itdeeply, with abandon, letting the world fall away. Above all, it is a testament to the universal power of books to shape our lives and awaken our true selves. At the literary agency, she finds out that the agencies main client is the one, the only, j. My salinger year, by joanna rakoff the new york times. In the winsome and meticulously observed my salinger year, rakoff recounts her experiences as an earlierera lena dunhamcreation. For joanna rakoff, in her memoir my salinger year, thats leaving. Rakoffs second book after a fortunate age is a reflective account of. It was the late 90s when writertobe joanna rakoff got her first job in new york publishing as an assistant to the woman who represented the great reclusive author j. My salinger year is a charming memoir of youthful foolishness by a writer who is no dope.