Hourglass: Time, Memory, Marriage
By Dani Shapiro
160 pages;
Knopf
Using diary entries, flashbacks and short selections from
other writers, Shapiro examines her 18-year marriage to M. A former war
correspondent, M. has struggled to survive as a filmmaker—a career
change that Shapiro begged him to make, fearing for his safety. Now, she feels
both guilty and grateful, worried about the toll this choice has taken on her
husband, especially as her own career thrives. Shapiro's examination of marital
decisions like this one—loaded with long-term consequences—is
what makes this memoir so intimate, so wise and, at times, so devastating. She
tells their story in collage, touching on decluttering efforts, past health
scares with their son, fears about finances, and even battles with an intensely
destructive woodpecker. Trying to figure out how she and M. have arrived at
this point in their lives—a point of both happiness and regret—Shapiro
realizes, "Change even one moment, and the whole thing unravels. The
narrative thread ... spools and unspools, loops around and returns
again and again to the same spot." A meditative masterpiece.
— Kelly McMasters