Reading, Writing, and Leaving Home: Life on the Page

“In her keen-eyed and hilariously funny new book … novelist and memoirist Lynn Freed tells how writers deal with life’s large and little tribulations” (O, The Oprah Magazine).

These eleven essays combine a memoir of exotic life, reflections on the art and craft of writing, and a brilliant examination of the ever-complex relationship between fiction and life. “Taming the Gorgon, ” an account of translating a difficult parent into fiction becomes a poignant and funny meditation on the intricate knot binding mothers and daughters. The story of a scandal created by publication, “Sex with the Servants” is an inquiry into the porous boundary between private truth and public betrayal.

“Distinguished by its emotional honesty and stylish prose, ” this blend of lively autobiography and inspiring wisdom puts aside all the fictional disguises and exposes the human being behind the artist (Chicago Tribune).

“Lynn Freed is a beautiful writer, dead-on brilliant, rich in humor, possessing a dark and comforting wisdom. ” —Anne Lamott, author of Bird by Bird

“To the tiny list of necessary books for people who aspire to the writing life … must now be added Reading, Writing, and Leaving Home. ” —Jonathan Yardley, The Washington Post Book World

© 2006 Mariner Books (Ebook): 9780547940649

Release date

Ebook: 5 September 2006