Synopses & Reviews
Dani Shapiro, a young woman from a deeply religious home, became the girlfriend of a famous and flamboyant married attorney-her best friend's stepfather. The moment Lenny Klein entered her life, everything changed: she dropped out of college, began drinking, and neglected her friends and family. But then came a phone call-an accident on a snowy road had left her parents critically injured. Forced to reconsider her life, Shapiro learned to re-enter the world she had left. Telling of a life nearly ruined by the gift of beauty, and then saved through tragedy, Shapiro's memoir is a beautiful account of how a life gone terribly wrong can be rescued through tragedy.
Review
"A page-turner."-Mademoiselle
"No doubt to regroup as rapidly as Shapiro does requires brutal honesty and a well-honed sense of humor-elements she wields artfully in her short, fabulous history. . . . She's driving with the top down. Bright Lights, Big City-the chick version."-People
"Absolutely heart-rending . . . a great piece of writing and an inspirational tale . . . Slow Motion illuminates the rocky road to integrity and maturity in graceful but wrenching steps."-Salon
About the Author
Dani Shapiro is the author of six books, including the novels Black & White and Family History, and the bestselling memoir Slow Motion. Her stories and essays have appeared in The New Yorker, Granta, Ploughshares, One Story, and have been widely anthologized. She is Director of the Sirenland Writers Conference in Positano, Italy. She lives in Connecticut.
Reading Group Guide
Q> It seems clear that Dani has come a long way from the young girl she writes about in Slaw Motion. That journey began with a family tragedy-but family tragedies can often lead people fur-ther down a path of self-destruction. Instead, Dani pulled herself out of a downward spiral. Why do you suppose the accident had that effect on her? Q> In certain respects, Slow Motion can be read as a story of Or-thodoxy and rebellion. What are some of the reasons Dani might have rebelled against her strict upbringing? Q> There are many places in Slow Motion where Dani describes herself as being torn between her two parents. What are some in-stances where she finds herself torn? How does this affect her? How does this feeling of being a divided self play a role in the de-cisions she makes? Q> Why do you suppose Dani becomes involved-and stays with-such an unsavory character as Lenny Klein? Particularly since she portrays him as physically unattractive, bombastic, self-centered, and a liar? Q> A mystery at the heart of Slow Motion is Dani's friendship with Jess. What do you make of this friendship? In the final conversa-tion between Dani and Jess, Dani asks her: "Why did you set me up like that at your party?" And Jess replies, "It's hard to explain, but I had my reasons." What do you think her reasons might have been? Q> Slow Motion is written from Dani's perspective, ten years later, and moves in much the way memory moves: back and forth in time, in an unlinear fashion, following Dani's emotional life, and making psychological-rather than plot-driven-connections. How does this affect your reading of the story? What are some of the passages where the insights Dani gained over time become clear? Q> Dani doesn't tell the story of her whole life; instead, she looks carefully at one dramatic moment in time. What are some of the differences between memoir and autobiography? And why do you think she chose to tell this story as nonfiction rather than fiction? Copyright (c) 1999. Published in the U.S. by Harcourt, Inc.