Olivia Laing's The Trip to Echo Spring: On Writers and Drinking

[dabroots]

There have been several books in recent years about writers and drinking, so each new one needs a different twist. An effort last year by Olivia Laing, The Trip to Echo Spring: On Writers and Drinking, features the British author traveling across the United States from New York to Washington State, with a few stops between. It's a very personal

Comments

Echo Spring

[crookedfingers]

I have been reading the book "The Trip To Echo Spring: On Writers And Drinking" a memoir by Olivia Laing. I got this book because I like to read about the lives of writers-I was reading recently the life of Max Perkins who the editor for Fitzgerald, Hemingway, Wolfe-that is why I bought this book-I have not read Fitzgerald, Hemingway or Raymond Carver. I collect their writings-biographies etc. . . So much to read! I have read a lot of Cheever his short stories, diaries, biographies. . . I do have Tennessee Williams's memoir in my library and the poetry of John Berryman. I also have short stories by Carver. It amazes me to realize how little I have read! Well hope all is well.

Re: Echo Spring

[dabroots]

A book that I have on the way is Penelope Lively's new memoir, Ammonites and Leaping Fish. I'm not very familiar with her except that she's British and has been writing fiction for a long time. Yesterday, I heard an interview with her on Fresh Air, which I recommend to you (that particular interview is at that link), and she talked about why she keeps so many books she's obtained over the years: because in some ways they are like old friends, representative of various phases of her life, things that have interested her at some time or another, and she would like to be able to reach out to them. I'm currently reading and about to finish Oliver Sacks' Uncle Tungsten: Memories of a Chemical Childhood, which I'm finding mostly fascinating, but skipping around a bit when he gets a bit too much in detail (for my tastes and interests) about early obsessions with some aspects of chemistry.

Re: Echo Spring

[crookedfingers]

I will check out that memoir by Lively and listen to the interview-always in search of good memoirs-I have two used books by Oliver Sacks in our book collection (which I have not read) "An Anthropologist On Mars" and "Hallucinations"-I have not heard of that book "Uncle Tungsten: Memories of a Chemical Childhood"-will keep my eyes open for it-peace

Penetope Lively

[crookedfingers]

I remembered I have in our book collection a novel by Lively titled "The Photograph"-I will have to look for it soon in my library and listen to that interview-peace