 |
style
Alexander points out that an autobiography is usually undertaken either because the writer is very famous or because they are near the end of their life. In her case neither of these were true, but she was trying to achieve something different......
| "A lot of people think that an autobiography has to begin at the beginning and end somewhere very near the end, and the work I've done is very much in the middle. It's a sort of chunk out of a turbulent middle portion of my life, trying to make a pattern. So it isn't your traditional biographical rendering, it's more a memoir where I weave things in and out of the fabric of my experience trying to make a little bit of sense for a little while, not for ever."
Meena Alexander |
Aamaer Hussein is a critic and writer who has studied Alexander's work. He believes that her style of writing is unique......
| "The language in Fault Lines is not the language of a standard memoir. It's not this dry, pared down flat prose - it's an impassioned prose, it's an extension of what she does in her poetry and leads the way to what she does in her fiction. Memory is the glue that links all the fragments together. And it's a memoir that breaks down all those artificial barriers between what is poetic and lyrical; memory, imagination, fictional narrative - it's certainly not a dry, boring autobiography."
Aamaer Hussein |
|
|
|
 |
