Distance & Direction

by Judith Kitchen

"The voice in these prose essays is window-pane clear, but with the power of sun through a magnifying glass. . . . This book is a treasurehouse."—Maxine Kumin Lyrical, affecting, and blended with intelligent speculation on national history and literary legacy, Distance and Directions contains tender and lucidly-detailed homages to Fred Astaire's hands, Kitchen's aging father, the color blue and familiar and dreamed-about places. Judith Kitchen has also written Only the Essays on Time and Memory, and has been the recipient of a Pushcart Prize, Anhinga Prize in Poetry, and a fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts. She teaches at SUNY-Brockport.

Genres: Nonfiction

220 pages, Paperback

First published September 1, 2001

Reviews

[Richard Gilbert]

Essays close to poetry. Moments from memory; how memory works. The world's beauty. And grief, loss, regret. Her father's image and memory everywhere. Will you wish for more connective tissue? Probably. Does it wholly achieve the author's aim as art. Yes, surely.

These essays make you want to be more alive yourself—to notice so much—and to write with such precision and lyrical grace.

[jonas]

life is more than the doing. it’s what we walk around with in our heads. it’s what we’ve seen. it’s what we’ve heard. it’s what we’ve tasted. or what we’ve felt. it’s everything we’ve wanted to do but never could (Kitchen, 176). this book by Judith Kitchen shows beauty of memory, space, and direction. direction towards one way, is direction nevertheless.

[Janée Baugher]

Until I read this collection in 2012, I had never seen a collection of flash-nonfiction. Kitchen is a masterful, delicate, nuanced, and honest writer. This book is a must-read for students of nonfiction, as well as individuals who aim to write autobiographically but don't know how to start.

[Sarah Buchanan]

What a beautiful memoir, filled with poetic images and exquisite details. Kitchen writes, "Some books are better than others. They know more of the human heart, and more of its heartlessness. They are haunted by water. Haunted by what they cannot escape. Heartrending." She was probably not aware when she wrote those words that they would describe her own book so perfectly.

[Sonja Livingston]

These are a treat to read, and show just how free a godo essay be. Rich and soulful.