Sinking into ...THE EMPTY BOAT

I fairly jumped up and down when I found out that Mark Salzman had written a new memoir. I have read Salzman's nerdy-teenager book LOST IN PLACE: GROWING UP ABSURD IN SUBURBIA at least 15 times (and that's a conservative estimate); I named it as one of my favorite books that make you laugh, but that doesn't cover the kind of bizarre kinship I felt with Salzman seeking the solace in cello playing and kung fu that he wasn't getting anywhere else. Not to be dramatic, but it was a book that saved me. I went on to read his most famous memoir, IRON AND SILK, as well as another (TRUE NOTEBOOKS) and two of his novels, but none of them had as much an effect on me as LOST IN PLACE.

And I can't recall that his other books called back as much to LOST IN PLACE as THE MAN IN THE EMPTY BOAT, even though they chronicle very different periods in Salzman's life. LOST IN PLACE ends with him looking ahead to college; in THE MAN IN THE EMPTY BOAT, Salzman is a father of two struggling with the latest draft of his novel, a world away from the future he might have imagined for himself. In a family crisis, he finds himself going back to his teenage years and the anxiety and doubt that seems to plague his whole family, and how they can be -- if not beaten, at least better governed.

I was riveted; I finished it in one sitting, feeling like I was catching up with an old friend. The creative strand (Salzman's wife is also in the arts, although film is her medium) added a layer to the personal story that lent it resonance beyond the specific details of his crisis. (It also made me hope that Salzman finishes his novel soon. You can do it!) If you haven't read any of Salzman's books I recommend this one as a gateway, or start with my favorite and move on to this one next.

I got an e-galley of this book through Open Road Media.