Synopses & Reviews
Encyclopedia of an Ordinary Life is a memoir in the form an encyclopedia, a collection of entries organized from Amy-Ziggy, that muses on the stuff of daily life, both trivial and essential. It's a book that breaks all the conventions of traditional memoir and is ultimately driven by that element that all good readers crave: voice.
Amy Rosenthal's great accomplishment is the narrative thread that develops across the alphabetical landscape the book presents, so the reader gets a full and rich sense of one woman's life ordinary, perhaps, but extraordinary in the sense that her observations are so dead-on and universal. The alphabetical organization feels random at first but soon develops a sense of narrative flow, and it turns out that this unusual literary device enables a reader to discover the meaning of things in a way that feels natural and has quiet power. The broken quality of the narrative has a particularly contemporary feel, and so 21st Century readers, by now well accustomed to the world of interruption we all inhabit, will find it oddly familiar and comfortable. And extremely effective as a means for revealing a life.
A most unusual and wonderful book: a memoir in the form of an encyclopedia, a kind of Schott's Miscellany for the human condition, beautifully, poignantly, and often quite humorously written by a young writer and NPR contributor. It provides a unique view of life at the end of the 20th and beginning of the 21st century.
Review
"Immensely readable and frequently hilarious... Rosenthal documents with considerable wit experiences we all have but never think twice about... But what's most delightful is that there's a real story here--readers will find themselves connecting the dots through the entries, slowly uncovering more and more about Amy's life." Leon Wagner, Booklist
Review
"Encyclopedia of an Ordinary Life....[is] a charming and witty picture of how we live now. It is organized around the compelling personality of Rosenthal herself, who reveals the minute discomforts and satisfactions of her emotional life, and dwells, as promised, on a minimum of tragedy, meanness, or pain." Anna Godbersen, Esquire (read the entire Esquire review)
Synopsis
This collection of entries muses on the stuff of daily life, both trivial and essential. Readers get a full and rich sense of one woman's life ordinary, perhaps, but extraordinary in the sense that her observations are so dead-on and universal.
About the Author
Amy Krouse Rosenthal is, alphabetically, an author of adult and children’s books; contributor to magazines and NPR; host of the literary and music variety show Writers’ Block Party; and mother of some kids. She lives in Chicago.