Lifesaving: A Memoir

by Judith Barrington

Overview

A new memoir from the author of the popular Writing the Memoir: From Truth to Art.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780933377455
Publisher:	The Eighth Mountain Press
Publication date:	04/01/2000
Pages:	192
Product dimensions:	5.70(w) x 8.50(h) x 0.80(d)

Table of Contents

	Prologue
	Umbilical	13
I	No Escape	27
	The Road to Perelada	39
	The Initiation	55
	Paco's Mother	65
	Senor Serra's Romance	75
	Exhalations	91
	Dream Time	101
	Sleeping Around	109
	El Cordobes	125
	The Rain in Spain	139
II	Making Waves	149
	Stones	161
	Epilogue
	Lifesaving	175

Editorial Reviews

In 1963, when poet Barrington was 19, an event sliced her life in two: the cruise ship Lakonia departed Southampton, England, with her parents aboard. Three days later, north of Madeira, a fire broke out, and 131 passengers, including her parents, were left stranded without lifeboats and drowned. (Her mother had often predicted she would die at sea, yet Barrington's father had been fond of egging his wife into sailing races and other water sports.) In this accomplished memoir, Barrington recalls the three years that followed this incident, in which she fled to a small town in northern Spain; her book doubles as the lesbian coming-out story of a young woman who must resolve her truncated relationship with her parents. Flashbacks to a lonely childhood in which she couldn't connect with either parent and particularly despised her "pigheaded" father give way to a future in which Barrington is finally able to achieve a degree of resolution around her loss. And as Barrington recounts her adventures in Catalonia, where she worked as the tour guide at a busy winery, the narrative reveals the complex ways in which she began to find, and accept, herself. Throughout, her writing is superb; she evokes smalltown Spain under Franco in lush detail with solid philosophical insight into the tragedy that changed her life: "What I had gleaned from my parents' death was not that ships are dangerous, but that what you fear most is." Among the growing number of memoirs, this is a gem. (Apr.) Copyright 2000 Cahners Business Information.|

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

Barrington, a British poet and author, demonstrates her mastery of words in this coming-of-age story. Barrington's parents drowned as a result of a cruise ship fire when she was 19, and here she reflects on her search for her identity at a time when she was in denial of her parents' deaths. She goes to work in Spain, where her parents lived before she was born and where the family vacationed. The area and language are familiar to her, but she is enough of a foreigner that her somewhat strange behavior is excused. Barrington keeps herself so busy that she barely has the time or energy to deal with her loss. Finally, after three years, she is able to vent her emotions. She comes to realize how much she misses her parents and that she is not responsible for their deaths. What captivates the reader even more than the narrative is the wonderful prose the author employs in describing Spain and her life there. Recommended for all libraries.--Gina Kaiser, Univ. of the Sciences Lib., Philadelphia Copyright 2000 Cahners Business Information.\

Library Journal