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Safekeeping: Some True Stories from a Life
A beautifully crafted and inviting account of one woman’s life, Safekeeping offers a sublimely different kind of autobiography. Setting aside a straightforward narrative in favor of brief passages of vivid prose, Abigail Thomas revisits the pivotal moments and the tiny incidents that have shaped her life: pregnancy at 18; single motherhood (of three!) by the age of 26; the joys and frustrations of three marriages; and the death of her second husband, who was her best friend. The stories made of these incidents are startling in their clarity and reassuring in their wisdom.
This is a book in which silence speaks as eloquently as what is revealed. Openhearted and effortlessly funny, these brilliantly selected glimpses of the arc of a life are, in an age of excessive confession and recrimination, a welcome tonic.
This is a book in which silence speaks as eloquently as what is revealed. Openhearted and effortlessly funny, these brilliantly selected glimpses of the arc of a life are, in an age of excessive confession and recrimination, a welcome tonic.
192 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2000
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 277 reviews
January 25, 2013
What a gorgeous book! As someone who perpetually gripes about memoirists not doing thorough, emotional research, I have to give three cheers to Abigail Thomas. She has taken the mundane stuff of motherhood and marriage and a woman floundering through life and made an object of striking beauty. Her short pieces are tiny windows onto tiny moments that nonetheless illuminate human brokenness and the terrific force of love. I delight in trusting a narrator so completely. I'm also thrilled to now know a woman writer who is masterfully representing a mother's experience without complaint or sentimentality. Her form is refreshing and fun--I read this book in about two hours--but in no way self-consciously artsy, as many lyrical memoirs are. I'm wowed. On to THREE DOG LIFE...
May 7, 2016
My sister recently recommended Abigail Thomas' Safekeeping: Some True Stories from a Life as good airplane reading. When I first glanced through it, I admit, I groaned. The chapters are extremely short, the story jumps around with no chronological order, the viewpoint changes from third person to first person to second person with no warning. I thought, oh great, another too-cool-for-school, experimental memoir that's trying to be deep. Thanks, Anna.
Then I started reading.
Safekeeping is actually a very lovely, well-crafted book about marriage, love, life, and mostly, memory. It is the story of a middle-aged woman who is trying to piece together her memories, trying to sort through and reconcile her life after the loss of a close friend who was "once upon a time" her husband.
The short, out-of-order chapters work because that is how memories come to us. In short, uncontrollable bursts. A displaced memory of a smashed dish, a loose fragment of a conversation, the cramped feeling of an old apartment.
The switch in viewpoint works surprisingly well. Instead of coming off as unbearably post-modern or uber-artistic, it serves as a simple, concrete tool. A woman trying to get a 360 degree view of her life. We see her as a young woman as *she* remembers herself. Then we see her as she imagines an objective observer might see her. Then her sister comes in and says, no that's not how it went at all...don't you remember?
And that's the thing. We don't remember. Not exactly. Abigail Thomas writes on her website:
"I’ve written nothing but non-fiction for years now in spite of my poor memory. I can remember moments, and scenes, but not what happened when or what came after...But if I could remember everything in its proper sequence, there’s a lot of life that’s interesting to live but not so interesting to write about, let alone read. And frankly, I’m bored by chronology. I don’t even believe in chronology. Time is too weird. It contracts, then it shoots forward (or back), it dawdles, stops still, and then suddenly we’re twenty years down the road. Whole decades evaporate. For me connecting the dots is not as absorbing as the dots themselves. I’m more interested in why certain memories stand out. Why these and not others?"
It's a great question, and one that I've been thinking about ever since I read Safekeeping. Writer Anne Lamott said this about the book, and I don't think I could sum it up better:
"[Safekeeping is] not so much memoir as a stained-glass window of scenes garnered from a life. This is an unforgettable portrait of a grown-up woman who has learned to rejoice in being herself. Reading it, we feel the crazy beauty of life."
Then I started reading.
Safekeeping is actually a very lovely, well-crafted book about marriage, love, life, and mostly, memory. It is the story of a middle-aged woman who is trying to piece together her memories, trying to sort through and reconcile her life after the loss of a close friend who was "once upon a time" her husband.
The short, out-of-order chapters work because that is how memories come to us. In short, uncontrollable bursts. A displaced memory of a smashed dish, a loose fragment of a conversation, the cramped feeling of an old apartment.
The switch in viewpoint works surprisingly well. Instead of coming off as unbearably post-modern or uber-artistic, it serves as a simple, concrete tool. A woman trying to get a 360 degree view of her life. We see her as a young woman as *she* remembers herself. Then we see her as she imagines an objective observer might see her. Then her sister comes in and says, no that's not how it went at all...don't you remember?
And that's the thing. We don't remember. Not exactly. Abigail Thomas writes on her website:
"I’ve written nothing but non-fiction for years now in spite of my poor memory. I can remember moments, and scenes, but not what happened when or what came after...But if I could remember everything in its proper sequence, there’s a lot of life that’s interesting to live but not so interesting to write about, let alone read. And frankly, I’m bored by chronology. I don’t even believe in chronology. Time is too weird. It contracts, then it shoots forward (or back), it dawdles, stops still, and then suddenly we’re twenty years down the road. Whole decades evaporate. For me connecting the dots is not as absorbing as the dots themselves. I’m more interested in why certain memories stand out. Why these and not others?"
It's a great question, and one that I've been thinking about ever since I read Safekeeping. Writer Anne Lamott said this about the book, and I don't think I could sum it up better:
"[Safekeeping is] not so much memoir as a stained-glass window of scenes garnered from a life. This is an unforgettable portrait of a grown-up woman who has learned to rejoice in being herself. Reading it, we feel the crazy beauty of life."
November 7, 2022
A memoir presented in a very interesting structure of short essays.
March 1, 2010
I learned of Abigal Thomas after reading an article on nonlinear narrative in The Writer's Chronicle. The article interviewed four writers, two with whom I was familiar: Paul Lisicky and Bernard Cooper. I had an opportunity to study with these men in the MFA Program at Antioch University and appreciated their style. The interview made me think I would like Thomas too, so I ordered two of her books, including Safekeeping.
WOW!! I want this woman to be my teacher! In writing AND in life. She has the ability to take the smallest moment and make it reveal so much on multiple levels. The pieces verge on prose poems, employing exquisite detail and achingly painful directness. Though the pictures that emerges is distinctly Abigal's story, the emotions the flow through the entire work will no doubt be familiar to many women. The last piece is absolutely stunning. I laid the book in my lap and just sat there breathing, wanting to hold on to all the feelings it evoked.
I want to write like Abigal Thomas.
WOW!! I want this woman to be my teacher! In writing AND in life. She has the ability to take the smallest moment and make it reveal so much on multiple levels. The pieces verge on prose poems, employing exquisite detail and achingly painful directness. Though the pictures that emerges is distinctly Abigal's story, the emotions the flow through the entire work will no doubt be familiar to many women. The last piece is absolutely stunning. I laid the book in my lap and just sat there breathing, wanting to hold on to all the feelings it evoked.
I want to write like Abigal Thomas.
April 5, 2015
This is a lovely, lovely, little book. With strong, simple words, the author illuminates the everyday events that make up a life. Each "chapter" (some only a few sentences long) is a complete and beautiful thought. The author is totally honest with herself - and us - which is not always an easy thing. Thank you, Kelsey, for lending me this book!
Read
October 28, 2018This voice-driven memoir is the genre at its height - full of 4am moments wherein life's mundanities (opening a can of tuna fish) are sketched into art in a way that only the writing process can achieve. A carefully controlled and magnificently crafted voice emerges on the page, and blank space becomes just as important as text. Perhaps the highest compliment I can pay this is that it left me wanting much, much more from her. After reading the last page I wished I could be transported into her Morningside Heights kitchen, eat apple cake with tea, and have her teach me how to look, listen, live.
Update 2018: I've been teaching this book for years now and I never get sick of it. And year after year, my college students love the book too. It is one of my favorite books of all time.
Update 2018: I've been teaching this book for years now and I never get sick of it. And year after year, my college students love the book too. It is one of my favorite books of all time.
September 11, 2023
I enjoy this author, who was probably around my age when she wrote these autobiographical vignettes subtitled “ true stories from a life.” Unlike her newer book What Comes Next And How To Like It, this one covers the entire arc of her life from having her first child at 18 to being a Grandmother of school age children.
Some of her life experiences are deeply personal, some universal, and all of them I found interesting.
When asked in an interview what she had learned at age 73 Abigail Thomas said, “ Diving into darkness makes us lighter.” I’m still pondering on that.
4 stars- reread as an easy to pick up and put down book which I carried in my handbag.
Some of her life experiences are deeply personal, some universal, and all of them I found interesting.
When asked in an interview what she had learned at age 73 Abigail Thomas said, “ Diving into darkness makes us lighter.” I’m still pondering on that.
4 stars- reread as an easy to pick up and put down book which I carried in my handbag.
July 11, 2009
I loved this book. A beautiful look at part of one woman's life, the joys and sorrows that went with it in essay form that may as well been poetry for their loveliness. I wish that I had read this book before A Three Dog Life for a few reasons. 1. I liked this book more, but I think I would have liked A Three Dog Life more than I did (I already gave it 4 stars) had I known Abby's past. 2. I read this book knowing what happens to her and it was hard because in this book you could read the hope in her heart but in my head I couldn't wrap my mind around the hope knowing what she still would have to endure in her life. 3. It would have been nice to go chronologically. Although they are stand alone books, they are both from Abby's life.
When I met Abigail Thomas I was blown away by her talent, honesty and the power of her words, but wasn't invested in her personally. If I had read these books before I met Abigail Thomas I would have met her, thrown my arms around her and thanked her for writing; for bringing such beauty to the world.
Everyone with an open mind must read this. She did after all live through the sixties and all that went with the sixties: Free love etc. but if you can look at the portrait as a whole, you will not be disappointed.
When I met Abigail Thomas I was blown away by her talent, honesty and the power of her words, but wasn't invested in her personally. If I had read these books before I met Abigail Thomas I would have met her, thrown my arms around her and thanked her for writing; for bringing such beauty to the world.
Everyone with an open mind must read this. She did after all live through the sixties and all that went with the sixties: Free love etc. but if you can look at the portrait as a whole, you will not be disappointed.
September 26, 2024
Retazos de una vida 🤎
August 8, 2009
A friend and writer that I greatly admire gave me this book as a gift, and it was a lovely gift--like receiving something delicate and beautiful and meaningful.
At first, I would open it randomly and read one of the short vignettes, and it was like savoring a small but rich piece of candy. Just a little tidbit; nothing that was meant to make sense in the grand scheme, but just to be appreciated for its own words, metaphors, and images.
Reading it as a whole was completely different, though. I read it straight through in one sitting and I found it both subtle and helpful how each vignette linked to the next. A small reference or tiny allusion could set the tone or context for the next chapter, and the reader would smoothly transition from one fragment to the next. It definitely made me see the memoir in a different light...it did tell the story of a life, but it didn't do it through a chapter-by-chapter play-by-play, but rather through a series of brief snippets that were "in order" in some ways, but "out of order" in others. Regardless, it worked.
It was also nice to read a memoir that did not rely on excessive drama to move it forward; this woman's life has not been so far removed from many women's lives. She has loved and lost, adored and struggled with her children and grandchildren, and grappled with her identity as a woman. Nothing overly dramatic. Nothing particularly extraordinary in terms of events. However, her extraordinary and poignant insight is what makes it worth reading.
For obvious reasons, one of my favorite vignettes is about teaching writing. She claims that you can't really "teach writing" (she teaches at the New School in NYC). But, what you can do, she claims is "point out the promising...encourage and allow and permit and make possible...give assignments so nobody has to face the blank page alone with the whole blue sky to choose from" (154). Like many brief insightful passages, I found this both true and eye-opening, familiar and enlightening.
At first, I would open it randomly and read one of the short vignettes, and it was like savoring a small but rich piece of candy. Just a little tidbit; nothing that was meant to make sense in the grand scheme, but just to be appreciated for its own words, metaphors, and images.
Reading it as a whole was completely different, though. I read it straight through in one sitting and I found it both subtle and helpful how each vignette linked to the next. A small reference or tiny allusion could set the tone or context for the next chapter, and the reader would smoothly transition from one fragment to the next. It definitely made me see the memoir in a different light...it did tell the story of a life, but it didn't do it through a chapter-by-chapter play-by-play, but rather through a series of brief snippets that were "in order" in some ways, but "out of order" in others. Regardless, it worked.
It was also nice to read a memoir that did not rely on excessive drama to move it forward; this woman's life has not been so far removed from many women's lives. She has loved and lost, adored and struggled with her children and grandchildren, and grappled with her identity as a woman. Nothing overly dramatic. Nothing particularly extraordinary in terms of events. However, her extraordinary and poignant insight is what makes it worth reading.
For obvious reasons, one of my favorite vignettes is about teaching writing. She claims that you can't really "teach writing" (she teaches at the New School in NYC). But, what you can do, she claims is "point out the promising...encourage and allow and permit and make possible...give assignments so nobody has to face the blank page alone with the whole blue sky to choose from" (154). Like many brief insightful passages, I found this both true and eye-opening, familiar and enlightening.
May 14, 2019
Sooo sooo lovely. I am so glad I read this book. It was the perfect kind of memoir, snippets or stories, narritves that are moments. It is the kind of book that makes me want to write again, that makes me miss it, and those are the best kinds.
August 8, 2008
Abigail Thomas’ book, Safekeeping, took me by surprise. I was several chapters in before fully understanding her technique. “Several” chapters was the span of a mere seven, or maybe eight pages. And I’m not sure how I feel about it. The story does not come together as a whole, not really, until the end. It reads like a diary – a well crafted diary. Some chapters are less than a page, really just notes. Notes to a dead ex-husband.
It was interesting to me how Thomas wove her relationships into the text; particularly her relationships with her second two husbands. Their relationship with each other was more intriguing – but, sadly, was left mostly unexplored. She reflects on her life with these men and her life with her children as she considers her own mortality.
The text focused on the issue of grief – like Didion’s The Year of Magical Thinking. Unlike Didion, Thomas gives her reader her feelings of fragmentation; short pages, annotations, subtext that is perhaps not clear for several pages more. While Didion relates to her reader that she felt this way: disconnected and disjointed, what she gives her reader in the end is a polished, well organized book written in solid chapters. Didion’s book was easier to wrap my mind around – but I think that Thomas’ book ultimately gives me a clearer picture of the process of grief.
It was interesting to me how Thomas wove her relationships into the text; particularly her relationships with her second two husbands. Their relationship with each other was more intriguing – but, sadly, was left mostly unexplored. She reflects on her life with these men and her life with her children as she considers her own mortality.
The text focused on the issue of grief – like Didion’s The Year of Magical Thinking. Unlike Didion, Thomas gives her reader her feelings of fragmentation; short pages, annotations, subtext that is perhaps not clear for several pages more. While Didion relates to her reader that she felt this way: disconnected and disjointed, what she gives her reader in the end is a polished, well organized book written in solid chapters. Didion’s book was easier to wrap my mind around – but I think that Thomas’ book ultimately gives me a clearer picture of the process of grief.
May 21, 2013
Written in four sections this book is a series of vignettes of individual memories, which alternate between first, second, and third person to tell one story, ultimately about love. This story, these stories, of love, are artfully and thoughtfully constructed by a woman, mother, sister, daughter, lover, wife, who is presented somehow as not weak despite her depression and at times, almost complete lack of coping mechanisms.
I was captivated by this story--drawn in by the short, sparse memories, trying to capture just one memory, just one idea, or maybe two. The characters were written sympathetically, even herself, with heart and dimension, all clearly beloved to the author as people. As in some of the pop-non-fiction so popular today, like Eat Love Pray, there is no self-pity or loathing, not a shred of or passive-aggressively asking of the reader to forgive her her failures. Her life is her life, full of moments she is neither proud nor disgusted of nor dispassionate about. Whatever the state of enlightenment she has reached that allows her to bring in those difficult contradictions together, crafting a deeply creaturely view of herself and her other characters--I would like to find myself in it with her.
I was captivated by this story--drawn in by the short, sparse memories, trying to capture just one memory, just one idea, or maybe two. The characters were written sympathetically, even herself, with heart and dimension, all clearly beloved to the author as people. As in some of the pop-non-fiction so popular today, like Eat Love Pray, there is no self-pity or loathing, not a shred of or passive-aggressively asking of the reader to forgive her her failures. Her life is her life, full of moments she is neither proud nor disgusted of nor dispassionate about. Whatever the state of enlightenment she has reached that allows her to bring in those difficult contradictions together, crafting a deeply creaturely view of herself and her other characters--I would like to find myself in it with her.
December 12, 2011
I enjoyed this book but I had some mixed feelings about it. My usual 3 star books are solid stories but with nothing exceptional to warrent an additional star. This one was different. It was not the typical memoir, which is partly what I liked about it (it was original) but it was was also unfamiliar. From the title, I expected to read stories about her life, however it was even less than stories. I'd call them snippets of her life. Each snippet was sometimes as short as one paragraph or as long as a few pages. Also, it wasn't told in a linear fashion. It seemed like random memories of different moments from her adult life. I wasn't sure how I felt about the fact that she changes viewpoints from first person to third person. I can appreciate the approach that she uses to tell her life story because when I think of my own life, this is how my memories are. She is a talented writer though so she makes it work. At the very least, it is a quick read.
November 12, 2015
I fell in love with Abigail Thomas when I read her memoir A Three Dog Life.
I fell in love with her all over again while reading this non-linear, memoir with spurts of truth and honesty and pain, interspersed with an orgy, lust giving way to nurturing of Jimi Hendrix, the friendship with her sister, a divorce, depression, kindness, parents, death, and birth.
It is so poignant to read a woman write about her life when she has learned to truly live it. Her second husband is dying, her children are having children, and she is sharing this journey in snippets so heavy and light at the same time that I just kept wishing for more.
It is a thin little book, or at least it feels that way because I want more. More snippets, more truths, more Abigail.
One of my favorites: Now that is the attire of a really good tantrum, she thinks, a little black velvet dress with lace collar and little white socks with frilly tops. Mary Janes complete the outfit.
I fell in love with her all over again while reading this non-linear, memoir with spurts of truth and honesty and pain, interspersed with an orgy, lust giving way to nurturing of Jimi Hendrix, the friendship with her sister, a divorce, depression, kindness, parents, death, and birth.
It is so poignant to read a woman write about her life when she has learned to truly live it. Her second husband is dying, her children are having children, and she is sharing this journey in snippets so heavy and light at the same time that I just kept wishing for more.
It is a thin little book, or at least it feels that way because I want more. More snippets, more truths, more Abigail.
One of my favorites: Now that is the attire of a really good tantrum, she thinks, a little black velvet dress with lace collar and little white socks with frilly tops. Mary Janes complete the outfit.
July 18, 2013
I'm amazed at how Thomas put together this memoir. It is a series of fragmented memories--various takes, sometimes in first person, sometimes in third--from her three marriages and, also carefully, about her three children. The technique made writing seem so easy. Next time I write a book, I thought, I'm going to hang a central topic in one corner of my psyche, like flypaper, and just start writing fragments like this, to see what adheres. In this case, the primary focus was on the second husband, who only lasted two years as a husband, but thirty as a friend. Through that lens emerges a comprehensive, free-wheeling, and honest story of Thomas's evolving selfhood--complete with regrets, but with that triumphant friendship ameliorating the recollected pain.
October 14, 2018
I enjoyed this book in the way I might enjoy a light (but not vacuous) conversation. I mean this kindly. While I didn't find the prose itself particularly remarkable, there is a sense in which this seems appropriate for the content. It feels unburdened. The form, which consists of a series of fragments, works well for a memoir - giving the sense that the author hasn't tried too hard to maintain a definitive narrative, and so, hasn't lost the truth in the telling. Moments can emerge more honestly without re-sculpting the sentiments involved in the interest of consistency.
June 15, 2015
What happens to love after the marriage is over? That's what is kept safe in this stash of remembrances about her second husband. Thomas collects her story like spare change tossed in a jar on the top of a dresser. When you retrieve the coins one by one you're amazed by the fortune inside. I'm addicted to her style of writing by the fingerful. There's only one problem: she's done telling before I'm done listening.
October 23, 2018
Safekeeping is not your typical memoir. The small bursts of flash creative nonfiction give the reader glimpses into Abigail Thomas's life and relationships with her family. She recounts the sublime, short moments in her life - a phone call with her sister or her ex-husband sitting on her couch - and reflects on what these memories have come to mean in her life. This is a reminder to live slow and cherish the ordinary days that make up our lives.
August 7, 2008
I love this book. If I am sad, I read this book. If I am angry at my husband and storming around like we have all the time in the world and it's okay not to be gentle with the people we love, I read this book. When I forget how to write, I read this book.
But it doesn't do everything. When I forget how to make Pie By The Yard, I still have to dig up Simply in Season.
But it doesn't do everything. When I forget how to make Pie By The Yard, I still have to dig up Simply in Season.
June 16, 2009
Vignettes from a life. Sometimes funny ("expensive coffee made by furious youths"), sometimes unflatteringly honest, often beautiful "You died, and the past separated itself from me like a continent drifting away."
March 16, 2008
I read and reread this book because it has so much to teach about life and
about writing. Tuck this in your computer bag or travel case. It's ideal
for a dose of inspiration or reflection when you travel.
about writing. Tuck this in your computer bag or travel case. It's ideal
for a dose of inspiration or reflection when you travel.
October 1, 2019
This is the kind of book that makes me wish I'd given fewer other books 5-star ratings, so that this would be more meaningful. What an interesting way of writing a memoir -- plucking both big and small, beautiful and poignant moments, and getting at what those little life moments really are. I don't know how to describe it other than that... Just stunning with little pops of heartbreaking and heartwarming throughout, and written so beautifully, with nothing showy or ostentatious. Gonna definitely read more works by Abigail Thomas.
September 10, 2024
Ha sido una sorpresa muy bonita tropezarme con este libro.
September 3, 2010
A friend and writer that I greatly admire gave me this book as a gift, and it was a lovely gift--like receiving something delicate and beautiful and meaningful.
At first, I would open it randomly and read one of the short vignettes, and it was like savoring a small but rich piece of candy. Just a little tidbit; nothing that was meant to make sense in the grand scheme, but just to be appreciated for its own words, metaphors, and images.
Reading it as a whole was completely different, though. I read it straight through in one sitting and I found it both subtle and helpful how each vignette linked to the next. A small reference or tiny allusion could set the tone or context for the next chapter, and the reader would smoothly transition from one fragment to the next. It definitely made me see the memoir in a different light...it did tell the story of a life, but it didn't do it through a chapter-by-chapter play-by-play, but rather through a series of brief snippets that were "in order" in some ways, but "out of order" in others. Regardless, it worked.
It was also nice to read a memoir that did not rely on excessive drama to move it forward; this woman's life has not been so far removed from many women's lives. She has loved and lost, adored and struggled with her children and grandchildren, and grappled with her identity as a woman. Nothing overly dramatic. Nothing particularly extraordinary in terms of events. However, her extraordinary and poignant insight is what makes it worth reading.
For obvious reasons, one of my favorite vignettes is about teaching writing. She claims that you can't really "teach writing" (she teaches at the New School in NYC). But, what you can do, she claims is "point out the promising...encourage and allow and permit and make possible...give assignments so nobody has to face the blank page alone with the whole blue sky to choose from" (154). Like many brief insightful passages, I found this both true and eye-opening, familiar and enlightening.
At first, I would open it randomly and read one of the short vignettes, and it was like savoring a small but rich piece of candy. Just a little tidbit; nothing that was meant to make sense in the grand scheme, but just to be appreciated for its own words, metaphors, and images.
Reading it as a whole was completely different, though. I read it straight through in one sitting and I found it both subtle and helpful how each vignette linked to the next. A small reference or tiny allusion could set the tone or context for the next chapter, and the reader would smoothly transition from one fragment to the next. It definitely made me see the memoir in a different light...it did tell the story of a life, but it didn't do it through a chapter-by-chapter play-by-play, but rather through a series of brief snippets that were "in order" in some ways, but "out of order" in others. Regardless, it worked.
It was also nice to read a memoir that did not rely on excessive drama to move it forward; this woman's life has not been so far removed from many women's lives. She has loved and lost, adored and struggled with her children and grandchildren, and grappled with her identity as a woman. Nothing overly dramatic. Nothing particularly extraordinary in terms of events. However, her extraordinary and poignant insight is what makes it worth reading.
For obvious reasons, one of my favorite vignettes is about teaching writing. She claims that you can't really "teach writing" (she teaches at the New School in NYC). But, what you can do, she claims is "point out the promising...encourage and allow and permit and make possible...give assignments so nobody has to face the blank page alone with the whole blue sky to choose from" (154). Like many brief insightful passages, I found this both true and eye-opening, familiar and enlightening.
January 22, 2014
I read this book as part of a creative nonfiction writers' group. I hadn't been exposed to Abigail Thomas' work before and was immediately engaged by the structure of the book and her singular style. She gives us only what we need to know, respecting the reader's capacity to process and reflect in the white space on every page. "Safekeeping" -- more than any other memoir -- inspired me to write my own story, Both Sides Now: A True Story of Love, Loss, and Bold Living, in a fragmented form with ample white space. Thomas helps us see that life is hardly linear. In the chapter, "What The Moment Can Hold," we come to understand that a moment can be enough.
September 15, 2011
Thomas's writing reminded me of Grace Paley's, which is a high compliment. She's of a different generation, but shares some of the subject matter--love relationships, children, the confusion of contemporary life--with Paley and some of the style as well. This story is told in short vignettes that at first seem random but eventually come together in a way that is revealing but not sensationalist. I think my favorite thing about it is how interesting she makes the ordinary. Taut and beautiful.
July 9, 2015
This wasn't what I expected. While it is true that there's some beautiful writing, the very short essays, sometimes even just paragraphs, make for a choppy experience. Thomas goes from first to third person, perhaps to distance herself from some of the events, but I think I would have preferred a complete narrative rather than 'scenes from a life' which is what this is. On the other hand, she conveys a lot in a very short space, which is something to be admired, if not loved.
September 5, 2011
I read this in an afternoon, a quick read but so powerful. Ms. Thomas' writing is so descriptive. I highlighted certain passages, that I didn't want to forget, i.e. her description of a hug, simply beautiful. I had read her other book, "A Three Dog Life" which was written after Safekeeping. It is equally as powerful.
November 25, 2011
This book is a keeper, to keep and to pick up and just read one chapter or two chapters; which in some cases is only one paragraph. The writer could probably tell a story in one sentence. Beautifully written. The story of life. Loved it!! QUOTE: "You died, and the past separated itself from me like a continent drifting away."
Displaying 1 - 30 of 277 reviews