Not Quite What I Was Planning : Six-Word Memoirs by Writers Famous and Obscure
Author(s): Larry Smith, Rachel Fershleiser
Deceptively simple and surprisingly addictive, Not Quite What I Was Planning is a thousand glimpses of humanity—six words at a time.
One Life. Six Words. What's Yours?
When Hemingway famously wrote, "For Sale: baby shoes, never worn," he proved that an entire story can be told using a half dozen words. When the online storytelling magazine SMITH asked readers to submit six-word memoirs, they proved a whole, real life can be told this way too. The results are fascinating, hilarious, shocking, and moving.
From small sagas of bittersweet romance ("Found true love, married someone else") to proud achievements and stinging regrets ("After Harvard, had baby with crackhead"), these terse true tales relate the diversity of human experience in tasty bite-sized pieces. From authors Jonathan Lethem and Richard Ford to comedians Stephen Colbert and Amy Sedaris, to ordinary folks around the world, everyone has a six-word story to tell.
Review(s):
“Perfect for the American attention span...Will thrill minimalists and inspire maximalists.”
“Irresistibly clever.”
“The brilliance is in the brevity.”
“You could spend a lifetime brainstorming.”
“In six words: Gimmicks should always be this fun.”
“Compulsive reading...as insightful as any 300+ page biography.”
“A perfect distraction and inspiration, and a collection that begs to be shared.”
“The pithiest of life stories.”
“A fabulously appealing exercise both for writers and for readers.”
“Six-word review: Buy it, keep it in bathroom.”
ISBN: 9780061374050