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I'll Be Your Mirror: Essays and Aphorisms
In his third book of essays, David Lazar blends personal meditations on sex and death with considerations of popular music and coping with anxiety through singing, bowling, and other distractions. He sets his work apart as both in the essay and of the essay by throwing himself into the form’s past—interviewing or speaking to past masters and turning over rocks to find lost gems of the essay form.
I’ll Be Your Mirror further expands the dimensions of contemporary nonfiction writing by concluding with a series of aphorisms. Surreal, comical, and urban moments of being, they are part Cioran, part Kafka, and part Lenny Bruce. These are accompanied by Heather Frise’s illustrations, whose looking-glass visions of motherhood—funny and grotesque—meet the vision of the aphorist in this most unusual nonfiction book.
I’ll Be Your Mirror further expands the dimensions of contemporary nonfiction writing by concluding with a series of aphorisms. Surreal, comical, and urban moments of being, they are part Cioran, part Kafka, and part Lenny Bruce. These are accompanied by Heather Frise’s illustrations, whose looking-glass visions of motherhood—funny and grotesque—meet the vision of the aphorist in this most unusual nonfiction book.
- GenresEssays
248 pages, Paperback
Published November 1, 2017
About the author
David Lazar
44 books14 followersDavid Lazar’s books include essays: Occasional Desire, (Nebraska) and The Body of Brooklyn (Iowa); prose poetry: Powder Town (Pecan Grove) nonfiction anthologies: Truth in Nonfiction (Iowa), After Montaigne (forthcoming from Georgia), and Essaying the Essay (Welcome Table Press); and interview collections: Michael Powell: Interviews and Conversations with M.F.K. Fisher (both Mississippi). He has lectured widely on nonfiction and editing, and founded the Ph.D. program in nonfiction writing at Ohio University, and directed the creation of the MFA program in nonfiction at Columbia College Chicago, where he teaches. He is the founding editor of Hotel Amerika, now in its fourteenth year.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
August 15, 2019
For David Lazar the personal essay is by its very nature “transgenred” each one an attempt at something new that pushes the form by changing genre gears in surprising ways. So in his book I’ll Be Your Mirror: Essays & Aphorisms he essays his own meandering mind, his conversations with dead writers, and an interview with himself. He also writes essays as aphorisms. Perhaps the most interesting genre-bending essay is “Mother’s, Etc.” a brief surreal piece on the mysteries and agonies of mothering that is broken up by much white space and accompanied by the illustrations of Heather Frise, a filmmaker, educator, and visual artist.
And yet, what sets these essays apart for me is the quality that I find in all excellent essays: the mind pondering its own inner workings. All the material-whether it is the sad story of an intensely loving but destructive relationship between him and a woman or the lovely and haunting images by Heather Frise in “Mothers, Etc.” the material at hand is transformed by the mind at work on them.
In the end this mulling—which in Lazar’s case takes the form of continuous and rapid qualifications of any simple proposition—can at first be maddening until it is understood as a form of honesty engendered in the personal essay at its birth in the digressive work of Montaigne whom Lazar admires. Pushed hard this way it becomes beautiful. It is the honesty that most counts in a personal essay and the true source of intimacy unique to the form, the honesty of a mind relentlessly at work in a desperate attempt to keep a heart from breaking.
And yet, what sets these essays apart for me is the quality that I find in all excellent essays: the mind pondering its own inner workings. All the material-whether it is the sad story of an intensely loving but destructive relationship between him and a woman or the lovely and haunting images by Heather Frise in “Mothers, Etc.” the material at hand is transformed by the mind at work on them.
In the end this mulling—which in Lazar’s case takes the form of continuous and rapid qualifications of any simple proposition—can at first be maddening until it is understood as a form of honesty engendered in the personal essay at its birth in the digressive work of Montaigne whom Lazar admires. Pushed hard this way it becomes beautiful. It is the honesty that most counts in a personal essay and the true source of intimacy unique to the form, the honesty of a mind relentlessly at work in a desperate attempt to keep a heart from breaking.
April 9, 2020
I'll Be Your Mirror: Essays and Aphorisms is a short novel that includes essays and aphorisms about people, and moments in the author's life that contribute to who he is and how he thinks. He discusses, sex, death, and how to cope with anxiety. The author David Lazar, shares a lot about who he is in his novel and gives insight into the way he thinks.
His novel is composed of short essays and aphorisms which is why it is very personal to him. An example of this is an essay title "Being a Boy-Man" where he writes about himself growing up. In the essay, he writes
"As a young man, say between the ages of eighteen and twenty-five, I felt sophisticated beyond my years" (101). He then wrote about his experience through adulthood.
I would not rate this novel very highly. I thought at times it was very monotonous, and not engaging. The overall storyline was confusing, and I did not agree with some of the ideas he was writing about. Although, if you like this author and would like to know more about him then, I would reading this novel. However, in my personal opinion, I did not get hooked on this book, and would not reread it.
His novel is composed of short essays and aphorisms which is why it is very personal to him. An example of this is an essay title "Being a Boy-Man" where he writes about himself growing up. In the essay, he writes
"As a young man, say between the ages of eighteen and twenty-five, I felt sophisticated beyond my years" (101). He then wrote about his experience through adulthood.
I would not rate this novel very highly. I thought at times it was very monotonous, and not engaging. The overall storyline was confusing, and I did not agree with some of the ideas he was writing about. Although, if you like this author and would like to know more about him then, I would reading this novel. However, in my personal opinion, I did not get hooked on this book, and would not reread it.
November 15, 2018
Learned a lot of vocab & was introduced to the essay form. While I didn't agree with everything he included, it was still entertaining to read. His past especially. I wrote a bunch of disjointed thoughts that I had reading through it all, but I'm not good enough at book reviews to write it well. If I had to give my takeaway, it would be that it spurred my imagination a bit more than usual. Sometimes in a good way, sometimes in a scrutinizing way. To me both are good.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews