Inheritance: A Memoir of Genealogy, Paternity, and Love

by Dani Shapiro

I had turned away from fiction, toward memoir, as if a trail of words might lead me there. All the while, I wondered: Why did it matter so much?

a paper goods store, I combed the aisles, looking for the perfect notebook. Writers tend to be fetishistic about our materials, and I am no exception. Spiral-bound, perfect-bound, lined, unlined, pocket-size—as if the notebook itself might make a difference.

Doesn't the notebook always make a difference?

psychoanalyst Bollas: “We learn the grammar of our being before we grasp the rules of our language.”