Life Stories #40: Jessica Dorfman Jones

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photo: JessicaDorfmanJones.com

In this episode of Life Stories, the podcast series where I talk to memoir writers about their lives and the art of writing memoir, Jessica Dorfman Jones opens up about Klonopin Lunch, a memoir about how, after “leading a life of should” for about three decades, she blew apart her “perfect-on-paper” marriage for an affair with the guy who showed up to teach her how to play guitar. We discussed her willingness to focus on the period during which that affair (and the attendant carousing and drug use) took place, without the pendulum swing back—in effect, casting herself as the villain of her own story.

And yet, as she explains, her recklessness and selfishness also brought about a “self-immolation” out of which she emerged realizing that instead of all the things she’d been doing to earn a living before, what she really wanted to do was write—and we talk about the book she’s working on now, which stems out of women’s reactions to the self-disclosures in this memoir.

Listen to Life Stories #40: Jessica Dorfman Jones (MP3 file); or download this file directly by right-clicking (Mac users, option-click). You can also subscribe to Life Stories in iTunes, where you can catch up with earlier episodes and be alerted whenever a new one is released.

16 September 2013 | life stories |