Lifescapes: A Biographer’s Search for the Soul

by Ann Wroe

The acclaimed biographer and obituarist for The Economist reflects on a career spent pursuing life and capturing it on the page.

It is soul that I go looking for. Or, to put it another way, real life.

' She's a genius, I believe' HILARY MANTEL
'A masterful celebration' JOHN BANVILLE
'A rare and beautiful book' KAPKA KASSABOVA

'What is life?' asked the poet Shelley, and could not come up with an answer. Scientists, too, for all their understanding of how life manifests, thrives and evolves, have still not plumbed that fundamental question. Yet biographers and obituarists continue to corral lives in a few columns, or a few hundred pages, aware all the time how fleeting and elusive their subject is.

In this dazzlingly original blend of memoir, biography, observation and poetry, Ann Wroe reflects on the art and impossibility of capturing life on the page. Through her experiences and those of others, through people she has known, studied or merely glimpsed in windows, she movingly explores what makes a life and how that life lingers after.

Animated by Wroe's rare imagination, eye for the telling detail, and the wit, beauty and clarity of her writing, Lifescapes is a luminous, deeply personal answer to Shelley's question.

Genres: Memoir, Nonfiction, Biography

216 pages, Kindle Edition

Published August 31, 2023

About the author

Ann Wroe is a journalist and author - working as Briefings and Obituaries editor of The Economist. She is a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society, the Royal Society of Literature and the English Association.

Reviews

[Andrew H · Rating 3 out of 5]

Wroe is a gifted writer. Lifescapes shows this, but lacks the consistency of her wonderful book on Orpheus and the mythology of poetry. This book opens wryly. Wroe was an obituary writer and her first job was to write the death of a famous fish. When she writes from an investigative distance, her writing is pure pleasure, but when she becomes too close to a personal event, the book becomes indulgent. To begin with, the inclusion of her own poems worked well. They served as direct illustrations of a theme -- photographs/slides in words. But about halfway through the book, having read so many imagist pieces, I started to feel that this book was becoming just another Wroe poem with an idea fitted around it. The philosophical depths suggested by the title are not there.

[Frazer · Rating 4 out of 5]

A biographer reflects on what it means to write about another's life, to capture their essence in words on a page. It's both an impossible task and one that's infinitely compelling: biographies are frequently among the best-selling books.

And Anne Wroe has certainly thought a lot about them. She is evidently extraordinarily passionate about her craft, and often waxes not only lyrical but even mystical about it. Section titles like Inbreath and Outbreath, and chapter titles like Indwelling may give you a sense.

What is it about those certain objects that, after a loved one's death, we can't bear to part with? A person's memory is often conveyed most strongly by objects, places, even smells. Words are blunt tools with which to write biography.

Wroe thinks deeply and with great feeling. She pays minute attention to details that others would pass over, and sees value in the minute. I can't help but think that this is down to her faith that she alludes to a couple of times.

In practice, this book needs to be read slowly. The writing is interspersed with poetry (mainly the author's own), and even the prose is carefully and beautifully worded. The book would have benefitted from a bit more of the practicalities of writing biography, an anchor to balance its numinosity.

Wroe also jumps around a lot from one subject to the next, which I found made finding a rhythm hard. Perhaps if I'd spent more time over it this wouldn't have bugged me.

A super compelling premise and subject, executed with real heart. Set aside a good long while for this one.

[Steve · Rating 2 out of 5]

Ann Wroe is a biographer and obituary writer for "The Economist." She writes beautifully. That said, it's hard not to view her "Lifescapes" as a misfire. I'm unclear as to just what it was she was trying to accomplish. The book is something of a memoir, but could just as easily be read as some sort of Mindfulness Journaling exercise. There is one brief mention of Buddha and a meditation gathering, but there's no real traction to be found other than the writing itself, which I'm sure is by design.

The subjects of Wroe's obituary writing are listed chronologically in the back, but don't expect that kind of linear recounting within the book itself. (Actually I was dreading that kind recounting.) In fact the subjects for the most part are given barely a line or two as Wroe follows her Pointillist meditations on this or that. A feather here, a walk there, the light of the day, etc. The book is all nuance and delicacy. Once I was shocked when out of blue she wrote at some small length about Pavorotti's eating and singing habits (he ate a lot, and winged it with the singing (he was a natural)).

The book is at its best when reflecting on some poems by Wordsworth, but then interrupts these and other reflections with numerous poems of her own. And these are very hit or miss. The anchoring "narrative" often doesn't connect (as far as I could tell) with the author's poetic interlude. Another frequent return point is Rilke, who has never done much for me, so I suppose I'm missing some wispy something. I realize this is a harsh review, especially so since I think Wroe is such a wonderful writer, but there it is. I tried.

[Nick Coke · Rating 5 out of 5]

A beautiful read. Hard to know where the poetry stopped and the prose began such was the gentle, intricate flow of words.

[Joseph Hamilton · Rating 4 out of 5]

As the book’s subtitle suggests, the obituaries are only a small part of its content. It’s more a meditation that draws on the poetry of Wordsworth, Rumi and others from the golden age of poetry. I just read smatterings of this book, the parts about obituary subjects who interested me, about a third of the total:

Bobby Fischer (p.12),
Arthur Miller (p.14),
Hunter S. Thompson (p.17),
Barry Lopez (p.18),
Richard Avedon (p.36),
Pavarotti (p.90),
Joan Sutherland (p.91),
James Lovelock (p.107),
Shirley Temple (p.123),
Seamus Heaney (p.130),
Eavan Boland (p.131),
Derek Walcott (p.132),
Aretha Franklin (p.174),
Marcel Marceau (?) (p.175)
and Raoul Wallenberg (p.185).

The others I was unfamiliar with and skipped except for those whose descriptors caught my eye: the champion of India’s lepers (p.173), the protector of monarch butterflies (p.182) and the scamp of the Warsaw ghetto (p.124).

As you can see from the page numbers above, long stretches go by without reference to obituary subjects. Only Marceau’s obituary is quoted extensively.

[Kayla · Rating 3 out of 5]

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for a copy in return for an honest review!

There are certainly turns of phrases here that are beautiful and illuminating about life and how we memorialize it. The author weaves poetry into her musings about what is left when we die, what is meant by a life, what is meant for a person trying to understand it all.

I appreciate that the author played with form; however, I do think that the narrative misses powerful moments in exchange for weaving a philosophical and poetic tale. I think having a clear vision could have helped solidify the point the author was making into a readable message that didn’t feel overly bloated.

Here’s a favorite quote I highlighted:

“…life catches on possessions”

[Joana · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.25

I thought this book had some beautiful moments / passages / poems, and I especially loved the last chapter. I enjoyed the concept of the book and I loved when the author wove in these tiny personal details about her obituary subjects that reminded us of their humanness and the sadness of death.

I found this book rather dense which made it a bit slow to read and hard to fully understand/ comprehend. I also felt the book tried to do too much with combining poetry, memoir, and obituary retelling as to not do truly enough of any

[Artemisia Hunt · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ann Wroe is a poet and also the obituary writer for The Economist. In this book she muses about the ways that we express our deepest selves in even the smallest of gestures: a compulsion to whistle in nature, in a moment caught in a photograph, in a good deed that changes the course of a life. A keen observer of the significant details of a particular moment in time, Wroe brings her subjects to life and reveals something uniquely beautiful about life as a whole, inviting us to observe our own worlds more closely and with a greater sense of awe.

[Jacob · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book is sorely titled and in need of massive editing/removal from society. There are maybe one or two sentences of merit; the rest is the purest form of run-on sentence known to man that rambles from one subject the next without pause for rhyme, reason, or respiration. An epitome example of what not to do when writing.

[Sara · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not as good as I had thought it would be! There are some nice sections in here, but it's really quite wandering.
There is a lot of poetry mixed in, which occasionally worked well, but in my opinion was too much.

[Marianna · Rating 3 out of 5]

The narrative was too disjointed for me. DNF

[D_Dog84 · Rating 5 out of 5]

(AUDIBLE)

[Ellen Trager · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ann Wroe's approach to Obituary writing is one of "catching souls". At times this book is challenging to move through but with patience and an interest in exploring the different ways in which our life force is expressed, inspired, and lives beyond our physical nature, it is worth it. It is a mix of poetry, obituary and prose and includes reference to many greats - both known and unknown. Rumi, Wordsworth, Avedon, a boy who regularly escaped the Warsaw Ghetto, Natalia Molchanova to name a few.

[Neil Kaarsemaker · Rating 3 out of 5]

A thoughtful and reflective soul, Ann Wroe describes her view of life and the world through her own poetry and the writing of others who inspire and inform her. At times elegant & lovely reading. Other sections are boring and ponderous. For me, the best sections are where she reflects on those she has eulogized. Her gift for descriptive language shines warm illumination on the lives of those she chronicles. She paints vivid word pictures. These portions made the book worth the reading.

[Sony · Rating 3 out of 5]

I found this hard to follow with my mouse brain (audio book) but the language was simply brilliant.

[Virginprune · Rating 5 out of 5]

As a great admirer of the author's professional work (I never miss an obituary in the Economist!), it is wonderful to follow her in a poetry-infused exploration of what pulls life together.