Thursday, December 28, 2017

#80: I'll Take You There by Wally Lamb

A film scholar looks back at the women in his life, aided by the ghost of a silent film director, in Wally Lamb's I'll Take You There.

Wally Lamb is everywhere these days, after breaking onto the scene with She's Come Undone and several bestsellers since, although I had not read him.

This story has our protagonist looking back at the lives of his sister, her birth mother, and his own mother, through adult eyes, framed in the real-life Miss Rheingold contest that peaked in the 1950s.  A current story includes his daughter and ex-wife, and their struggles.

The storytelling is interesting, but to me the framing device--the ghosts of film stars transporting him into movies of his life, playing in an old movie theater--clanks pretty badly.  Some passages are more nuanced, but much is painted in too-broad strokes of pathos or comedy.

I got this for Christmas and read it pretty quickly over a few lazy days.

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