Given that many of us may be spending extra time with family and friends during the next couple of weeks, I thought I'd share a book I recently read: Listening Is an Act of Love by Dave Isay. This is a book of selected stories from the StoryCorps project, where since 2003 ordinary Americans have interviewed each other about events in their lives. The stories are recorded in New York City and at mobile recording booths around the country. They are then archived in the Library of Congress.
What I Liked Best
- I found the stories from 9/11 and Katrina the most moving and vivid. Given how much news coverage both events received, it's amazing that there wasn't anything familiar about the stories I read. I felt like I was experiencing those events first-hand.
- The back of the book contains a short list of questions to help start conversation. Sample questions include: What is your earliest memory? Who was the most important person in your life?
I admit this book stumped me initially. How do you capture a book where every other page is a completely different story? Eventually, I decided that these pewter hearts with the scrolls on them were a good representation of the flow of words and connections among the participants. The dark pink faceted glass rondelle represents love and sparkling conversations. (A larger photo is at Beads & Books.)
You'll Enjoy This Book If
• You want to encourage others in your life to tell their stories, but you're not sure how to begin.
• You'd like to write novels or biographies and want to see how ordinary people tell stories about their lives. This book also might also be helpful to jump start some plot and character ideas.
• You want to learn the personal side, not just dry facts, of events in the last 100 years of U.S. history.
While I'm fascinated by oral histories, I think I'd enjoy the audio
version of this book even more. As a writer, I wanted a bit more color and detail in all the stories except those about 9/11 and Katrina section. I'm betting that the stories would be even more fascinating to hear than to read.