Rachael on Stephen King on Writing

by Rachael Nisenkier

It’s rare that you get to say a book changed your life and not be talking at least somewhat hyperbolically. It’s even rarer to get to say that about a book by Stephen King.

I’m not trying to knock the man whose name is ridiculously appropriate given that he is the King of pulp horror novels. It’s just that Stephen King doesn’t really put a lot of pretensions into his writing. He’s there to tell a good story, and tell it well. He doesn’t consider himself a great, life-changing writer. He is ambitious when it comes to the scope and breadth of his writing repertoire, but not in terms of the pretensions of the individual novels. And I’m sure he feels the same about the book about which I am here to talk, his 2000 memoir/writing guide On Writing. Nonetheless, On Writing changed my life. Twice.

Quick Hits: Memoir Edition

by Rachael Nisenkier

I have a passion for both memoirs and religious stories, so it seemed like Mennonite in a Little Black Dress was written for me. Yet the overall narrative left me cold.

The author, Rhoda Janzen, has had an interesting and occasionally tragic life. And she chronicles it all with a humor and good cheer that really helps to pull the reader in. But the book loses steam as she goes off on tangents and random anecdotes while living back in her parents' Mennonite community.

Janzen is at her best when chronicling the absurd or the melodramatic moments in her life, yet without a clear through-line in her narrative, the book left me feeling unfulfilled.

MyBookshelf: Quick Hits

Welcome to a new recurring feature over here at MyBookshelf. Quick Hits is a monthly feature that will allow us at MyBookshelf to share a little bit about some books that we love, whether they be classic favorites or new discoveries. Rather than providing long reviews, these quick hits will give you just a little taste of the books before sending you over to Amazon.com to check out the books more in depth.

Read on for our first edition of Quick Hits

This Rough Magic

The longest-tenured Artistic Director in the history of The Stratford Shakespeare Festival was an eccentric former actor famous for temper tantrums and stage fright. As a director, he staged some of the most popular productions the festival ever housed. In his 14 seasons in charge, he opened the new studio theatre, started the Birmingham conservatory and brought the festival completely out of the red.

This Rough Magic tells the story of how Richard Monette got there.

If you can make it through the somewhat tedious early years account, the material reading almost as an excuse for any bratty behaviour that might follow, the memoir quickly becomes a deliciously interesting read. For any theatre buff, and especially Stratford patrons, This Rough Magic is a fascinating first-person account of the life of one of the festival's most intriguing personalities.

From his 19-year-old performance as Hamlet through his breakout role in Michel Tremblay's Hosanna to his diva-esque quest for the part of Romeo and his decision to briefly trade in Shakespeare to perform naked in the original cast of Oh! Calcutta!, Monette gets down to the nitty gritty details of his life in the theatre, whether it makes him look good or not.

Telling the tragic story of his love affair with the recently-deceased Domini Blythe, his subsequent coming out of the closet and the lonely years that followed- the memoir is, at times, a very touching human story. At others, it is a rambunctious tale of a narcissistic megalomaniac who often seems to have been much of the inspiration for the character of crazypants Darren Nichols in the television show based on the festival, Slings and Arrows.

Intimate stories populated by legends like William Hutt and Maggie Smith fill many of the pages, including the account of his first moments on the world-famous festival stage when Hutt, often considered the greatest actor in national history, greeted him with the words "welcome home".

The more you know and love the festival the more fascinating this book becomes. The more you know about classical theatre, the faster you'll want to turn the pages. But for any theatre fan at all, This Rough Magic is truly a memoir not to be missed.