In My Other Life

by Joan Silber

A hip New Yorker confronts the accident of middle age.

Genres: Short Stories, Fiction

223 pages, Paperback

First published May 1, 2000

About the author

Joan Silber is the author of nine books of fiction. Her book Improvement was the winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award and the PEN/Faulkner Award and was listed as one of the year's best books by The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, Newsday, The Seattle Times, and Kirkus Reviews. She lives in New York and teaches in the Warren Wilson MFA Program. Keep up with Joan at joansilber.net.

Reviews

[Robin Meadows · Rating 5 out of 5]

Q: Who wrote the GR blurb for this book?
A: Someone who didn't read it.

Here's what the blurb should say: A compassionate portrayal of people on the edges of life.

Also Joan Silber is fantastic - if you haven't read her, do yourself a favor and get one of her books. I've liked all of hers I've read (Secrets of Happiness, Improvement, The Size of the World & Lucky Us) but so far this is my favorite.

[Cflack · Rating 4 out of 5]

Joan Silber is a master. Her short stories are second only to Grace Paley and Jhumpa Lahiri for me. I have read and loved her more recent short story collections “Fools” and “Ideas of Heaven” and just found an older collection from 2000 called “In My Other Life” in a used bookstore and grabbed it like an unexpected treasure.

The stories in this collection may not be quite as nuanced as those in “Fools” and “Ideas of Heaven” but they are still beautiful encapsulations of a life, a passage of time or an event and its aftermath. The overarching concept in these stories is observations by middle aged urbanites on their wilder times in their 20s and where they are now. All of the stories have similar observations on behaviors when characters were young and reflecting back on their unintended impacts. Very personal and beautifully rendered.

I think my favorite stories were the two that revolved around Patty and her partner Charlotte making a decision to move upstate for a better life for their daughter Wyona. The first took place in New York just as they were packing up to move, and the second took place after they had moved and were settling in, not so easily, in a small town upstate. They are both from Patty’s point of view and there is insightful writing around reflection and uncertainty. Truly beautiful. Another great story is “Comfort” which focuses on a middle age woman managing a video store and her observations and relationships with her sons and a 20ish female clerk who she tries to “steer” in the right direction.

[Rita · Rating 4 out of 5]

2000 Born 1947.
Read this twice in the space of half a year. It was still next to my bed so I thought I hadn't finished it. Ended up reading the whole book a second time.

New York City is certainly one of the themes of these stories. Either they're in the city or they are somewhere else wishing they were in NYC. Several mentions like, she was too aggressive for Californians, they are not used to the big mouths of New Yorkers.

Down to earth. Most characters are 'ordinary' people, not rich, most only making ends meet.
Most of the characters are in their 40s or younger, probably around the age Silber was when she wrote the stories, all of which had been previously published in a large variety of places.

The stories are not about plot in the sense of eventful things happening. You are shown, partly through natural-sounding dialog, how the characters relate to each other. And how they feel about their lives and how they are currently situated.

I won't be able to remember any specific story or character, yet the stories are very special to read. Well, special but also like everyday real life.

[Jesse · Rating 4 out of 5]

Continuing my project to read all of Silber. These are very 80s NY stories--a lot of bars, downtown energy, even one whose location is a video store. Only one set of recurring characters and no other connections that I can see, and a bit shorter-term than her later work, which I prefer, though perhaps only because I read it first. Instead of whole lives imagined and whole stories glanced off each other, we get more classic short-story tropes (only one ran in the New Yorker, but a lot of them have that feel. What's the same is the little bits of philosophy about life, aging, learning, just being. My dream is to someday write a few sentences as cleanly felt and seen.

[Jmolentin]

Reading Joan Silber is like hanging out with old friends

[Sarabande Books · Rating 5 out of 5]

Finalist of the 2001 Paterson Fiction Prize