Crabcakes: A Memoir

by James Alan McPherson

With the same grace and lyrical precision that distinguish his vibrant short stories, James McPherson surveys the emotional upheaval of his last twenty-one years. From Baltimore, Maryland, to Cambridge, Massachusetts, to Iowa and Japan, Crabcakes witnesses McPherson's confrontation with the past, and his struggle to make sense of it and to bind it, peacefully, to the present. His elliptical search for meaning -- and his ultimate understanding of what makes us human -- finds in Crabcakes a powerful and enduring voice.

Genres: Memoir, Nonfiction

288 pages, Paperback

First published January 14, 1998

About the author

James Alan McPherson was a Pulitzer Prize-winning American short story writer and essayist. He spent his early career writing short stories and essays, almost without exception, for The Atlantic. At the age of 35, McPherson received a Pulitzer Prize for his collection of stories, Elbow Room (1978). He is also the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship (1973) and the MacArthur Foundation Award (the so-called "Genius Award"; 1981) and was inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1995. He is perhaps most often quoted for propounding this philosophy of American citizenship: "I believe that if one can experience diversity, touch a variety of its people, laugh at its craziness, distill wisdom from its tragedies, and attempt to synthesize all this inside oneself without going crazy, one will have earned the right to call oneself 'citizen of the United States.'"

Reviews

[P.Miller · Rating 3 out of 5]

I think it's difficult to critique a memoir. I could criticize it in one or two ways: based on how much I like what the author has to say, and how much I agree with him, or based on the writer's skill in expression. I think McPherson is a talented writer and some of his observations and recollections have a poetic element to them. But I also found his level of isolation and psychological sensitivity depressing. He's obviously a very intelligent and insightful person, but instead of focusing on the beauty of the relationships around him he becomes obsessed with the negativity that many find elemental to American culture. I can relate very well to some of the toxic interactions he describes, and have often had many of the same thoughts as McPherson has had run through my mind. But whether these occasions must define a person is not a forgone conclusion. Nonetheless I can tell no one how they should feel, or how they should react. I pick this book up from time to time to re-read some point he's made or some experience he had described beautifully.

[Tl Wagener · Rating 2 out of 5]

A remarkable view inside the mind of this writer. The memoir seems to be written more for himself than an audience, and, as he often notes his own solitude -- to the point of reclusiveness -- this is, I guess, understandable. But it caused me to skim in some places.

A beautiful writer, however, and the book makes me want to seek out other work of his.

[Nancy · Rating 2 out of 5]

I did not finish this memoir because it was too stylized for my liking. Each chapter had a different writing style relating different times and events in the author's life, connected (albeit oftentimes loosely) to a Baltimore house he had rented out to a poor, elderly couple. I like a memoir that makes me feel I know the person who wrote it, but here I felt totally disconnected from him.

[Lauren · Rating 3 out of 5]

I don't know if I would call this book remarkable. I didn't find it life changing. But I did think it was interesting. It's also different from my normal nonfiction read & I appreciate that for what it is.