My Life as a List: 207 Things About My (Bronx) Childhood

by Linda Rosenkrantz

Before I was born, my mother had decided to name me either Laurel or Lydia, names that appealed to her artistic temperament. But then somehow--she was convinced by my father's sisters to make me a lackluster Ruth, in honor of their recently deceased mother, Rose. And so my birth certificate reads Ruth Leila, a name I was never called, by my mother, either of my father's sisters, or anyone else.

So begins the life list of Linda Rosenkrantz, 207 random recollections of her first 12 years that together comprise one of the year's most unexpected and delightfully offbeat memoirs.

Rich with the sights, sounds, and smells of her sheltered childhood in a Jewish enclave of the Bronx. My Life as a List re-creates the urban experience of American Jews in the years surrounding World War II. She writes with wry affection of family and friends, of grievances harbored and accomplishments savored, all recalled with the laser particularly of a child's eye. Period photographs and ephemera from the author's own collection bring her colorful cast of characters even more vividly to life.

Juxtaposing the poignant with the hilarious, the insightful with the quotidian, My Life as a List is a delightful patchwork quilt of memories that is sure to resonate with readers.

89 pages, Hardcover

First published March 2, 1999

About the author

Linda Rosenkrantz is an American writer, known for her innovations in the realm of “nonfiction fiction,” most prominently in her novel Talk, a New York Review Books classic.

Reviews

[Kathleen · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Each times table gave off a different aura. The twos, threes, and fours were like playful babies. Five was even-tempered and benign, six beginning to get a bit troublesome (only five fingers on one hand, after all), but it was the sevens and eights and to some extent the nines (which did have some logic to them if you slowed down and stopped panicking for a minute or two) that were impossible brats, under control one day, out of reach the next. Eleven, on the other hand, was an absolute laugh riot, and the twin mutiplicands -- 6 x 6, 7 x 7, 9 x 9 -- had the sweet, rich taste of a chocolate eclair" (5).

"I took a certain pride in the existence of the definite article in front of the word Bronx, as if it elevated my borough (far above Brooklyn, needless to say) to the position of a grand duchy or some distant continental locale, like The Hague, or The Netherlands, The World, The Universe" (39).

"My mother's idea of cursing was to mutter, 'Christopher Columbus!' under her breath. Aunt Beck's was to exclaim 'Canary!'" (83).

[Kathrin Passig · Rating 4 out of 5]

Inhaltlich passiert nicht viel, aber ich mag dieses reduzierte, unambitionierte Autobiografieformat. Das Nachwort der Autorin über den Schreibprozess war auch interessant. (Dazugelernt über Autobiografietechnik: Vielleicht lieber nicht endlos Namen von Schauspieler*innen erwähnen, mit denen schon ein knappes Jahrhundert später niemand mehr etwas verbindet.)

[Lorelei · Rating 3 out of 5]

A sweet memoir and peek into a childhood from a bygone era. Nothing exceptional but interesting.

[Peter Freitag · Rating 3 out of 5]

A fun read. Rosenkrantz's list spurred many of my own memories of childhood. She suggests at the end that readers should consider writing their own lists, and I will.