An Exact Replica of a Figment of My Imagination by Elizabeth McCracken

I finished reading An Exact Replica of a Figment of My Imagination by Elizabeth McCracken last night, late but it was such a moving book that I had to let it sink in a little while. This book read like a long letter that you write and never show anyone because it's too personal. And would anyone really understand? Except, of course, we understand from her superb writing.

In 2006, the novelist Elizabeth McCracken and her writer husband lost their first child, Pudding. That's what they called him while she was pregnant and so that's what they called him when he was stillborn. So very sad. But the book is funny and hopeful and so realistic.

Just a few months after Pudding, the author was pregnant again. When this child was to be born, she wrote about the labor. Of course she wrote about the labor and delivery of Pudding too. This second labor when a live baby was born was rendered wonderfully, interspersed with the discussion and thoughts of what to name the child, something they avoided since avoiding helped minimize jinxing the good that might come:

"Shall we call for anesthesia?" said the nurse who'd suggested calling for Marilyn, and I thought dreamily, Anesthesia. That's a nice name.

The book is full of such touching, off-the-wall thoughts that I felt privileged to get to read the story of Pudding and Gus.

Book read:  An Exact Replica of a Figment of My Imagination
Author:  Elizabeth McCracken
ISBN:  978-0-316-02767-0

Niagara Falls All Over Again by Elizabeth McCracken

Elizabeth McCracken is a wonderful writer. I'd read The Giant's House and Here's Your Hat, What's Your Hurry. Loved them both. I've been saving Niagara Falls All Over Again for a few years. I knew I'd love it, and I guess I wanted a good book to look forward to. She did not disappoint.

Writers like Elizabeth McCracken are the reason I don't write fiction. I'd want to do it just like this, and I don't think I can. I so admire her use of language, her wit, and her subtle way of telling a story.

Cases in point, from Niagara Falls All Over Again:

"Maybe that's all jealousy is, the ability to look into someone's future or past and see your own absence."

And "Her eyebrows matched the rest of her, instead of looking like a proofreader's fat-headed correction:  insert eyebrow here."

This novel has an old-time feel to go along with the old-time story of a pair of vaudeville performers who grow together and apart through the years. Highly highly highly recommended. Go get it and read it.

What are you reading?

Book Read:  Niagara Falls All Over Again
Author:  Elizabeth McCracken
ISBN:  0-385-33648-9