Larry Smith (1)

Following up on Not Quite What I Planned, this book contains a number of six-word phrases and sentences meant to summarize a life. Entries range from famous authors and performers to obscure folks who submitted something in response to this writing prompt.

Everything is edited by SMITH magazine, who started this idea of six-word memoirs. The editing is quite clever at times, so that one page will contain two complementary or contradictory memoirs, such as, "Dad died. Mum died. I'm next." as the only memoir on a page with "Mom's dead. Dad's dead. I'm free."

Speaking of clever, many of the memoirs are, with puns or ironic comedy. Others are deeply serious and touch on tough subjects like cancer and suicide. Still others are very fluffy, and many comment on how much sex the author did or did not have. A few submitters include photographs or illustrations with their memoirs.

The book ends more information about certain entrants' lives with a paragraph or so providing for each featured. In some cases this is helpful to clarify, but I still found some of the non-famous entries to be a little perplexing because six words wasn't enough to explain. Having an extra mini-biography of folks like The Amazing Kreskin or Bob Barker also seemed a bit unnecessary because readers will know who they are.

For whatever reason, I didn't enjoy this book quite as much as the previous one; maybe it's because a one-trick pony isn't as exciting once you've seen the one trick already.… (meer)