Sleeping with Cats: A Memoir
by Marge Piercy
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Book Summary Information
Author: Marge PiercyEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2002-12-24
ISBN: 0060936045
Number of pages: 368
Publisher: Harper Perennial
Book Reviews of Sleeping with Cats: A Memoir
Book Review: A life lived hard and examined honestly
Summary: 5 Stars
I've read four or five of Piercy's novels, beginnning with Small Changes over thirty years ago. I enjoyed Summer People and was absorbed by Gone to Soldiers. So I was very pleased to find this memoir, wanting to know more about this extremely talented author. A little over halfway through Sleeping with Cats, however, I started thinking to myself that this woman, Marge Piercy, was certainly hell-on-wheels in her day, and may not be an easy woman to like, even today. Personally, I sleep with dogs, not cats; but that's neither here nor there. As I continued to read her life story I couldn't help but admire her absolute and unflinching honesty. She knows exactly who and what she is and she makes no apologies. This is a woman who knew what she wanted from an early age: to write. And she has worked hard her whole life at perfecting her craft. Here is one line which serves to perhaps summarize her life: "I have great discipline in my work, but in my life, I have often made a mess ..." And later she adds: "I have been a better writer than a person, and again and again I made that choice. Writing is my core." And finally:
"Writing sometimes feels frivolous and sometimes sacred, but memory is one of my strongest muses. I serve her with my words. So long as people read, those we loved survive however evanescently. As do we writers, saying with our life's work, 'Remember.' Remember us. Remember me."
Although you might not agree with many of Piercy's life choices, you have to admire her discipline when it came to her craft. I respect her right to make the choices she made, and I admire her work tremendously, this book included. And don't worry, Marge. We'll remember you. Thanks for sharing this many-layered look at an eventful life in the arts. - Tim Bazzett, author of the Reed City Boy trilogy and Love, War & Polio
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