Telling: Confessions, Concessions, and Other Flashes of Light

by Marion Winik

Combining the insight of Anna Quindlen and the comic storytelling of Garrison Keillor with her own singularly outrageous humor, a commentator on NPR's All Things Considered takes us on a tour of the minefield of chance and circumstance that make up a life.

"Winik's voice is so true and clear and compassionate, we're happy to listen to any story she wants to tell." — Los Angeles Times Book Review

Along the way, she offers razor-sharp takes on everything from adolescence in suburban New Jersey ("Yes, I wanted to be a wild teenage rebel, but I wanted to do it with my parents' blessing") to hellish houseguests and bad-news boyfriends; from the joys of breastfeeding in public to the sometimes-salvation of motherhood.

Candid, passionate, and breathtakingly funny, Marion Winik maintains an unshaken belief that following one's heart is more important than following the rules—and a conviction that the secrets we try to hide often contain the deepest truths.

"A born iconoclast, an aspiring artiste, a feminist vegetarian prodigal daughter, from early youth I considered myself destined to lead a startling life far outside the bounds of convention. I would be famous, dangerous, brilliant and relentlessly a sort of cross between Emma Goldman, Jack Kerouac, and Georgia O'Keeffe.... So where did this station wagon come from?" —from Telling

Genres: Memoir, Essays, Nonfiction, Humor, Biography Memoir

224 pages, Paperback

First published February 8, 1994

About the author

Longtime All Things Considered commentator Marion Winik is the author of First Comes Love, The Glen Rock Book of the Dead and seven other books. The Baltimore Book of the Dead is forthcoming from Counterpoint this fall. Her award-winning column on BaltimoreFishbowl.com appears monthly, and her essays have been published in The New York Times Magazine, The Sun and elsewhere. She is the host of The Weekly Reader radio show and podcast and reviews books for Newsday, People, and Kirkus Review. She is a board member of the National Book Critics Circle and a professor in the MFA program at the University of Baltimore. More info at marionwinik.com.

Reviews

[Kaylynn · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am so happy to have the honor to take Marion's classes at the University of Baltimore. She is a great professor, writer, and woman. This book was enlightening, entertaining and a permanent addition to my bookshelf.

[Jeff · Rating 4 out of 5]

Winik is not writing autobiographical essays. She is writing confessions. Confessions of the types of venal, cruel, selfish things most of us do but keep to ourselves. Sometimes it feels uncomfortable that she is revealing so much of herself. That pure honesty is gripping.

Winik is funny and earnest and self-deprecating while remaining proud of who she is, flaws and all. She writes as if talking with a close friend drinking coffee at her kitchen table. Or drinking margaritas out on a deck. Sometimes as if slumped on the couch after shooting up heroin.

She reveals a goofy, thoughtful, introspective, impulsive woman who would be a great person to drink coffee with. Or drink margaritas with. Or possibly do heroin with.

I must point out that she does not confess the time she and her two boys were sitting behind us at a minor-league hockey game and one of them spilled their soda all over Melissa's coat and instead of apologizing they got up and left before we noticed.

[Leanna · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very humerous and quick read. There were two sections that truly moved me ("16 Pictures of my Father" and "Visiting Steven"). Towards the back 1/3 of the book, she drifted into essays regarding subject matter I am not yet familiar with: motherhood, child rearing, sibling issues. I would recommend this for someone on vacation!

[Kelley · Rating 5 out of 5]

given to me by a friend and was VERY poignant and gut wrenching to me at the time as I had just lost my first daughter, Olivia in childbirth and Marion also lost her first born at full-term. We both also had sick husbands and a lot of her essays hit home for me.

[BlueLikeTheSky · Rating 3 out of 5]

Almost a four....Winik's voice is authentic and effortless. But when previously published essays come together in a collection, they need editing to avoid needless repetition. The lack of such a scalpel carved off a star for me, sadly.

[Annamary · Rating 4 out of 5]

Short, personal essays written that are detailed, funny, and honest -- the author puts herself in the line of her own leveling gaze. My two favorites were "Telling" (read an excerpt here http://www.marionwinik.com/Telling.html) and "16 Pictures of my Father".

[Charlotte · Rating 3 out of 5]

For it to be a good memoir, you have to give the negatives along with the positives. She did this. She bravely showed herself. This didn't really take me into another world. I felt like her experiences were not TOO removed from my own.

[Ruth · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fun to read her early writing. The best essay is "Traveling" which I think should have/must have been collected in some "Best Essays" book somewhere. Really lovely. And in second person!

[Amy · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this book on my first visit to Italy in 1995, and was absolutely entranced by her life, her views and her fearlessly honest voice.

[Diana · Rating 4 out of 5]

The perfect balance of co-misery, honesty, and insight. A great book on a great and rainy day.

[Nichelle · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fast read and an interesting life told through many short essays - some I could really relate to, others not so much.

[Leslye · Rating 4 out of 5]

loved discovering this book...sad to read about the hardships and loss.

[Karla · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoy Winik's wit and take on the world. Funny stuff.