Amy Edelman’s Holiday Gift Suggestion

Amy Edelman‘s first novel, Manless in Montclair, is based on her real-life experiences re-entering the dating scene after the death of her first husband—even the part where the protagonist becomes the subject of a Daily News profile. Originally, she tried writing it as a memoir. “When my publisher initially asked me how the memoir would end, I said I had no idea,” she says on her website. “So she suggested writing it as fiction so I could make it end however I wanted it to… in reality, what ended up happening was even less believable than the fiction.” For this holiday season, she has a straight-up memoir she recommends highly.

Oh, and she’s also got tips for suriving the holidays while single, too.

If you know someone who hasn’t already bought and/or read it, The Glass Castle would make a fantastic holiday gift.

By turns inspiring and heart-wrenching, it is a story out of step with our high-def, flat screen tv-in-every-room times. Jeannette Walls, who we first meet at age three, tells of a childhood where food, a roof, and responsible parents are in scarce supply. But, while her family may be poor, she and her siblings grow up in a world rich in imagination, books, art, and possibility.

I read parts of the book to my ten year-old and suggested my thirteen year-old read it as well. At a time when many people—old and young alike—are encouraged to think about what material things they want for the holidays, it’s inspiring to read about someone who got by—and, indeed, flourished—with so little.

6 December 2007 | gift ideas, guest authors |