The Business of Memory: The Art of Remembering in an Age of Forgetting

by Charles Baxter (Editor)

In the current information age, "memory" is as likely to be an attribute of a computer as a human being. In Graywolf Forum The Business of Memory , editor Charles Baxter invites twelve creative writers to contemplate the externalization of what was once so deeply personal. The resulting essays address a provocative range of the explosion of interest in the memoir; the recovered-memory movement; America in the grip of an "amnesia plague;" the need for coherent stories of our past to help us organize our present; and forgetfulness--political, cultural, and literary--and the shame and allure it holds. Throughout, these fascinating pieces illuminate the art of remembering in a time when memory has become a highly measurable commodity.



Charles Baxter
Richard Bausch
Karen Brennan
Bernard Cooper
Lydia Davis
Steve Erickson
Alvin Greenberg
Patricia Hampl
Margot Livesey
James A. McPherson
Victoria Morrow
Michael Ryan
Sylvia Watanabe

Genres: Writing, Nonfiction, Essays

180 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1999

About the author

Charles Baxter was born in Minneapolis and graduated from Macalester College, in Saint Paul. After completing graduate work in English at the State University of New York at Buffalo, he taught for several years at Wayne State University in Detroit. In 1989, he moved to the Department of English at the University of Michigan--Ann Arbor and its MFA program. He now teaches at the University of Minnesota.

Baxter is the author of 4 novels, 4 collections of short stories, 3 collections of poems, a collection of essays on fiction and is the editor of other works. His works of fiction include Believers , The Feast of Love (nominated for the National Book Award), Saul and Patsy , and Through the Safety Net . He lives in Minneapolis.

Reviews

[Ellen · Rating 5 out of 5]

As always, I enjoy Charles Baxter's personal voice speaking directly to the reader as much as I enjoy his fictional voice. I recommend Graywolf Forum Three: The Business of Memory not only to writers but to all readers. In fact, I recommend it to anyone who is interested in examining their experience and their life and how memory shapes us and we shape memory.

[Stephen Haines · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a bit of a lopsided collection. Some of the pieces in here are really amazing and have a lot of interesting things to say; some meander and don’t ever really seem to fit into the book. Overall, this had lots of worthwhile moments that, for me, made the overall text still feel valuable. Patricia Hampl and Bernard Cooper and Victoria Morrow, in particular, all had really outstanding pieces that were instructive & insightful. If you’re a Cooper fan already, the essay he includes in here gives a really fascinating look sort of “behind the scenes” of the release of one of his books, Truth Serum.

[Mary · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book is wildly uneven. Some of the 14 essays it contains are fine. Charles Baxter's (the editor's) was pretty good. Some of them didn't seem to have anything to do with memory. Some were truly awful. There was one by a teacher at Macalester that was a tangle of say-nothing cliches and overworked metaphors. Several of the essays had that "inside baseball" feel--by writers for writers and flirting with literary criticism and theory, which is not what I was looking for.

What I was looking for, Mr. Baxter delivered in part, which was a reflection on memory and the anxiety of its loss. He talked about the difference between information and experience, data and storytelling. The way that the explosion and our consumption of available data crowds out engagement with the world around us. And changes the focus of our memories. But the book as a whole was not worth the time.

[Julie M]

Library summary: "In the current information age, "memory" is as likely to be an attribute of a computer as a human being. InGraywolf Forum Three: The Business of Memory, editor Charles Baxter invites twelve creative writers to contemplate the externalization of what was once so deeply personal. The resulting essays address a provocative range of topics: the explosion of interest in the memoir; the recovered-memory movement; America in the grip of an "amnesia plague;" the need for coherent stories of our past to help us organize our present; and forgetfulness--political, cultural, and literary--and the shame and allure it holds. Throughout, these fascinating pieces illuminate the art of remembering in a time when memory has become a highly measurable commodity."

[Visha · Rating 3 out of 5]

A compilation of essays on memory, geared towards those who are interested in creative non-fiction, particularly memoir writing. Particularly liked Patricia Hampl's essay; others range from okay to quite good. Victoria Morrow's was interesting, as was Lydia Davis's. Admire Charles Baxter, he's edited some strong work before. While I didn't like this book enough to buy it, I would recommend individual essays for class reading or personal inspiration. I will definitely return to this book because I did not read Margot Livesey's essay.

[Sandra Novack · Rating 3 out of 5]

I am working my way through this book (slowly, slowly). I find some of the essays a bit labored but on the whole (so far) it's been an interesting read, particularly for those who are consumed with issues of memory and shaping it on the page. Thought of you. Personally, I wouldn't *buy* this book again unless it were used and cheap, though I would check it out of the library, if they had it. :)

[Sarah Stone]

The pieces in here -- I read a number of them -- are so beautiful and so different from each other. As a collection, it really captures what it means to write a memoir or in any other way try to make sense of a life -- why we need to order our past into narratives, how we remember and how we forget.

[Julie M · Rating 3 out of 5]

A group of essays by authors and teachers about how memory works, or rather, how it often doesn't--and the reasons why. Baxter's own was the most enlightening, but I laughed our loud at Alvin Greenberg's on forgetting his first kiss. Trying to dredge up that memory ("because shouldn't EVERYONE remember THAT?") made for hilarious reading. Come to think of it, I'm not sure I can remember mine!