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Surviving a Writer's Life
The author traces her evolution as a writer, and examines her life experiences as a Berkeley student of the 1960s, world traveler, and cancer survivor
- GenresWritingMemoirNonfiction
220 pages, Hardcover
First published March 1, 1994
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Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews
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May 26, 2009This book was written by a dear friend from my college days who I only recently learned died in 1998. I also only recently learned that she had become a moderately successful novelist. No real surprise, however, because I knew how important writing was to her, and I knew she was talented. Suzanne prefaces this memoir by stating it is not an autobiography but rather a book about writing. The book is a very moving account of the joys and heartaches of writing, but it is also highly autobiography, and I found the autobiographical passages even more moving--especially as I was already familiar with some of the people and the dramatic events it discusses. I didn't read the book to seek inspiration as a writer, but I did find it inspirational in that regard. I'm sure it will have the same effect on other writers. (I've added a picture of Suzanne that I took in 1971 to the collection of photos on my home page here.)
June 5, 2016
In all the ways that a book can reach in and touch a reader, this one came through. It's not written as a technical manual for those who desire to write. Struggling writers will find inspiration perhaps, but it is also for those "bookworms" who love reading and love writers. Lipsett, through talk of reading groups she attended from the 60's to 90's, has given me an exciting new list of female authors to discover. She writes here for anyone who has ever lost family tragically and lived in the silent mystery of what really happened. She talks of women who raise each other up, find common bonds, and celebrate the wisdom of growing older. She speaks to those who have dealt with cancer or the many who care for those who do. I took in her account of a hospital stay and found myself in tears as her description sucked the wind my chest. It can be difficult to imagine what goes on in the rooms of patients when I leave them alone with their thoughts and fears for quiet nighttime hours. Lipsett gave me ample food for thought.
"Later that night, when Tom had gone home, I found that books and television had been rendered unintelligible, as if in a foreign language, by my latest medical circumstances. But as I lay there wondering how I would get through the night, the muted clatter and bustle out in the corridor was overtaken by the sound of angels. I do not overstate. Harmony--sweet, tight, and richly complex. It was Christmastime. Carolers had come. It was the San Francisco Gay Men's Chorus. They worked their way slowly down the hall. At each room they stopped and sang two or three songs, sometimes more. They gave perhaps the only gift each of us in the rooms of that hall could receive that night--you didn't have to open it, you could have it in your bed, and it entered the head and sank down to the heart, like hope."
Such a well written and touching book. It fulfills all of my needs as a reader. I am so grateful that writers like Lipsett toil throughout the years of low pay and minimal recognition so we can relish in their prose. I am thankful she rose at 5am while her family slept so I could experience the utter bliss of reading about her life. Thank you Suzanne...the hours were not wasted.
"Later that night, when Tom had gone home, I found that books and television had been rendered unintelligible, as if in a foreign language, by my latest medical circumstances. But as I lay there wondering how I would get through the night, the muted clatter and bustle out in the corridor was overtaken by the sound of angels. I do not overstate. Harmony--sweet, tight, and richly complex. It was Christmastime. Carolers had come. It was the San Francisco Gay Men's Chorus. They worked their way slowly down the hall. At each room they stopped and sang two or three songs, sometimes more. They gave perhaps the only gift each of us in the rooms of that hall could receive that night--you didn't have to open it, you could have it in your bed, and it entered the head and sank down to the heart, like hope."
Such a well written and touching book. It fulfills all of my needs as a reader. I am so grateful that writers like Lipsett toil throughout the years of low pay and minimal recognition so we can relish in their prose. I am thankful she rose at 5am while her family slept so I could experience the utter bliss of reading about her life. Thank you Suzanne...the hours were not wasted.
April 21, 2012
I guess the idea of a book about writing appealed to me, but this book is not exactly that (despite the blurbs). It is an episodic memoir of a woman coming to terms with the losses and events of her past via a late entry into writing. As a memoir it was moving, focused on the experience of being a woman, and kept moving. It imparted only occasional wisdom about writing.
December 14, 2011
Suzanne was my friend, mentor, and book midwife. She did the intial edits on my first very long and heavily researched novel concerning hiv/AIDS, during the fall of 1993 at the Novel Completion course she taught Thurs. nights at UCBerkeley. It was a remarkable class for everyone who was present; when a few of us tried to recapture that time by reconvening informally, later on, it fell flat.
Anyone who contemplates writing, or is an old hand at it, will love this little gem. It's a woman-book, for the most part. It covers the essentials of life and how it translates to the little black marks on the whte page; why many of us keep at it (writing) long before or after it makes economic sense.
She and I both toiled in near anonymity and poverty, but we couldn't do anything else, except occasionally dance!
An amazing synchronicity occurred in Suzanne's life: her mother died when she very young, and her father, well-meaning and bereft, evacuated every foto and memory of her mother from their house and lives. Years later, after having written novels, and after her father's death, she was able to speak with older relatives who restored her mother's memory to her through anecdotes and images from the past. And every relative~ of whom she had had no prior knowledge until after her father's funeral~ had the name of one of the characters in her books.
As I write this, my stomach is doing the thing it does when I get near a very powerful place. I went to the book signing for "Surviving" at Stinson Beach the summer of 1994, and brought my lovely middle daughter, Lauren, a voracious reader even as a child.
Suzanne was dying of cancer as she wrote this book, and I'm sure she knew it. I didn't. I visited her tiny wood-lined office in Petaluma and saw the poster promoting breast cancer awareness with a woman's gracefully exposed chest~ a mastectomy. I'd thot she was recovered, but I would've known better had I seen her today, at this stage of my life: she was distracted in the preoccupied way someone who is pregnant is distracted, busy growing a life. But she was growing more tumors, I think in her ovaries.
The next summer, I rented an expansive home on the lagoon at Stinson. I called her before I left Orinda to invite her to come have a glass of wine at our beach house, this time. She hesitated, then carefully said in a metered way, "I don't think I can do that."
And I thot, "Ok, I came to your book signing, but if you're too busy, oh well." She used to call us, "her little students' and maybe I felt a sleight.
Two years passed and I called her with the joy of finally having finished and edited my 468 pg novel. One of her sons answered the phone and said I couldn't talk to Mom, but it's ok, he said ~
"The cancer got her but it couldn't kill her spirit!"
I'm a little older right now than she was at that time, and when I look at my younger women friends, I know I can't accelerate their understanding, any more than Suzanne could accelerate mine at barely forty or so. The important thing to remember is that words and the stories they create through the magic of infinite combinations are one of the greatest gifts which we as readers, and writers, and editors can share. And fully listening to the answer one receives upon asking a question, instead of registering our own reaction, is integral to honoring the dignity of another person, whether they be surviving cancer, or simply a personal battle we cannot possibly know or understand.
A bench honoring Suzanne Lipsett has been placed in Putnam Park, Petaluma, California.
This author is currently writing a non-fiction story about losing the little girl who went to Suzanne's book signing that sunny day, at Stinson Beach, wearing a flowered dress ~ losing Lauren to alcohol and drugs.
Respectfully submitted,
Elisabetta Saverini, known by Suzanne as:
Andrea E.Haverland
Anyone who contemplates writing, or is an old hand at it, will love this little gem. It's a woman-book, for the most part. It covers the essentials of life and how it translates to the little black marks on the whte page; why many of us keep at it (writing) long before or after it makes economic sense.
She and I both toiled in near anonymity and poverty, but we couldn't do anything else, except occasionally dance!
An amazing synchronicity occurred in Suzanne's life: her mother died when she very young, and her father, well-meaning and bereft, evacuated every foto and memory of her mother from their house and lives. Years later, after having written novels, and after her father's death, she was able to speak with older relatives who restored her mother's memory to her through anecdotes and images from the past. And every relative~ of whom she had had no prior knowledge until after her father's funeral~ had the name of one of the characters in her books.
As I write this, my stomach is doing the thing it does when I get near a very powerful place. I went to the book signing for "Surviving" at Stinson Beach the summer of 1994, and brought my lovely middle daughter, Lauren, a voracious reader even as a child.
Suzanne was dying of cancer as she wrote this book, and I'm sure she knew it. I didn't. I visited her tiny wood-lined office in Petaluma and saw the poster promoting breast cancer awareness with a woman's gracefully exposed chest~ a mastectomy. I'd thot she was recovered, but I would've known better had I seen her today, at this stage of my life: she was distracted in the preoccupied way someone who is pregnant is distracted, busy growing a life. But she was growing more tumors, I think in her ovaries.
The next summer, I rented an expansive home on the lagoon at Stinson. I called her before I left Orinda to invite her to come have a glass of wine at our beach house, this time. She hesitated, then carefully said in a metered way, "I don't think I can do that."
And I thot, "Ok, I came to your book signing, but if you're too busy, oh well." She used to call us, "her little students' and maybe I felt a sleight.
Two years passed and I called her with the joy of finally having finished and edited my 468 pg novel. One of her sons answered the phone and said I couldn't talk to Mom, but it's ok, he said ~
"The cancer got her but it couldn't kill her spirit!"
I'm a little older right now than she was at that time, and when I look at my younger women friends, I know I can't accelerate their understanding, any more than Suzanne could accelerate mine at barely forty or so. The important thing to remember is that words and the stories they create through the magic of infinite combinations are one of the greatest gifts which we as readers, and writers, and editors can share. And fully listening to the answer one receives upon asking a question, instead of registering our own reaction, is integral to honoring the dignity of another person, whether they be surviving cancer, or simply a personal battle we cannot possibly know or understand.
A bench honoring Suzanne Lipsett has been placed in Putnam Park, Petaluma, California.
This author is currently writing a non-fiction story about losing the little girl who went to Suzanne's book signing that sunny day, at Stinson Beach, wearing a flowered dress ~ losing Lauren to alcohol and drugs.
Respectfully submitted,
Elisabetta Saverini, known by Suzanne as:
Andrea E.Haverland
June 12, 2007
I won this book in a column writing contest in high school. It was the only piece of my writing ever recognized in that way. The book meant a lot to me and was a wonderful read about writing.
April 14, 2019
Like several other reviewers, I found this 90s book in a thrift shop in excellent condition. As a writer, myself, I was eager to read what this author had to say. I was only slightly familiar with her name. However, I quickly came to respect this intelligent hard-working woman for her fierce determination in following her calling.
I found this book very much a memoir, but writing was very much a huge part of Lipsett's life, so she wrote of her experiences and her passion for writing, the latter often sacrificed to time spent editing others' works to survive. For me, this small in size but timeless in stature book felt extremely moving given the circumstances of her life of pain, joy, sorrow, and courage.
Some quotations:
"I could only write well-loved. It took me to nearly forty to feel myself on solid ground, secure in my family."
I researched Suzanne Lipsett and the irony of her life is poignant and heart-breaking. (no more spoilers)
She continues:
"And in that context my memories of being targeted and hurt by angry men on the rampage were nothing to me anymore but ancient feathers and bones."
There is wisdom and also mystery in this lovely book. It was a privilege to find it and to read her measured style of writing. I intend to keep it for reference and strength.
I found this book very much a memoir, but writing was very much a huge part of Lipsett's life, so she wrote of her experiences and her passion for writing, the latter often sacrificed to time spent editing others' works to survive. For me, this small in size but timeless in stature book felt extremely moving given the circumstances of her life of pain, joy, sorrow, and courage.
Some quotations:
"I could only write well-loved. It took me to nearly forty to feel myself on solid ground, secure in my family."
I researched Suzanne Lipsett and the irony of her life is poignant and heart-breaking. (no more spoilers)
She continues:
"And in that context my memories of being targeted and hurt by angry men on the rampage were nothing to me anymore but ancient feathers and bones."
There is wisdom and also mystery in this lovely book. It was a privilege to find it and to read her measured style of writing. I intend to keep it for reference and strength.
September 28, 2018
A writer's memoir on how her writing has progressed as she's traveled through her life. While I have dabbled in proofing, I have never really wanted to write. For me, the most salient bits were the gems of wisdom she garnered as a book editor, but I feel this book would help many aspiring writers learn what they might expect to experience through choosing a writer's life, or having a writer's life choose them.
April 6, 2018
I picked this book up on a whim at Goodwill or our local used book store it a little free library and it was a pleasant surprise of a little book. One writer’s sometimes reluctant journey to find her voice and the amazing gifts from the universe that followed despite hardships along the way. If you are a writer or desire to be I recommend this little gem.
March 8, 2020
Story of a woman who was determined to be an author - though she didn't always know it. Published in 1994, it provides an interesting picture of how things "used to be," and I'd be interested to know what struggles still apply to today's writers (e.g. do ghostwriters still get little to no credit?).
August 23, 2017
Surviving A Writers Life by Suzanne Lpisett.Excellent….not about writing so much as about the business of writing wrapped around her memoir….wow…and a family mystery… ….bought in Stockbridge Mass…..
September 6, 2017
A well written brilliant memoir in essay form. She was brave and smart, she wears her heart on her sleeve and lets us into her life and shares her secrets and insights.
October 7, 2018
I found the title misleading (just a touch) because this has nothing to do with telling me how I might survive a writer's life, rather it's merely her memoir of how she's chosen to do so.
January 12, 2015
Stumbled over this little jewel in a used book store. A great little "On Writing" book I've never heard of. Despite the how-to title, this is a very deep and at times dark memoir. I am so glad there is someone out there willing to bear all, both of her personal life and of her professional insecurities. The greatest lesson she imparts is that it's okay to come into one's own as a writer after 40, that a level of maturity and security makes one better.
May 31, 2009
More like a collection of short stories, this book takes the reader through the days of the author's student days in the 60's in Berkeley, California through her exotic travels to Turkey and her coming of age process. I found the book to be too spiritually hollow to truly satisfy, but not uninteresting.
July 8, 2016
An interesting book which details some of Lipsett’s past, her passion for writing and her path of self discovery through words.
We travel through Kenya and Turkey, through her experiences at Berkley in the 60s, marriage and pregnancy, and through two battles with cancer.
After working many years as a collaborator and editor, she breaks through with her own novels.
We travel through Kenya and Turkey, through her experiences at Berkley in the 60s, marriage and pregnancy, and through two battles with cancer.
After working many years as a collaborator and editor, she breaks through with her own novels.
August 22, 2016
It really is a memoir and not an instructional manual of any kind. She is a fine writer but I am just not that interested in memoirs.
April 14, 2019
As I read more of this book I felt a growing connection with the author and hoped to contact her to tell her what the book and stories within had meant to me. I was sad to find she had passed away some time ago. Not sure if her family follows her reviews now, but thought I’d write this anyway so that if they do, they could know that Suzanne is still inspiring aspiring authors.
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