I loved this book for its excellent depiction of the complexities of life and relationships. Each of us and our families have our special stories. Ms. Styron's writing captures what's important and I could certainly relate to her struggles with complicated issues. ( )

I read part of this in Vanity Fair and liked it enough to get the book. Memoir of growing up as the youngest daughter of William Styron, a difficult and apparently narcissistic man who was ultimately crippled by depression and his guilt about not living up to his full potential by never writing the Great American War Novel. It's a good picture of depression and its effects, and of how everybody in the family was affected by him. I also enjoyed the story of how she set out to understand him by writing about him and researching his papers at Duke University. Not sure I understand the bad reviews because this is more about her than him - it's her memoir.

I'm not a huge fan of his, read Sophie's Choice and saw the movie, but in both I felt the story of Sophie was far more interesting than that of Stingo, who is, of course, Styron. I never read Confessions of Nat Turner and am not in a hurry to do so but the stuff about the book and its reception was interesting.

This is an elegant memoir of William Styron by his youngest child, whose meticulous research benefits from her personal memories and insights into his life. ( )

A vivid, poignant, and totally absorbing memoir. ( )

[Originally published at Bookin' It.]

I purchased this audiobook for my library's collection after hearing about it during a Booklist "June is Audiobook Month"-type webinar last year. As it's supposed to be about prize-winning author William Styron (Pulitzer for The Confessions of Nat Turner, National Book Award for Sophie's Choice), I thought it would be appropriate for a university library collection.

Trouble is, the senior Styron's youngest daughter (he was 41 when she was born) can't quite seem to decide if she is writing a memoir (as it says on the audiobook case), or a biography. She tries to do both, being biographical especially during the first 50 years of her father's life, when she either wasn't there at all, or too young to remember much.

I knew nothing about Styron before listening to this audiobook, so this book did succeed in that I learned more about him. However, by the end, I didn't really care about him, and I think the book could be a disappointment to his fans.

William Styron apparently made life difficult for those around him with his clinical depression, but I really did not see him behaving much worse than many creative types, especially males of that era. What I did notice was a lot of name-dropping in the book - Styron senior was apparently friends with the Kennedys and numerous celebrities, but Alexandra doesn't really have many interesting stories to tell about these friendships.

Alexandra Styron reads her book in a monotone. This might have been intentional, to fit the detachment with which she tells her story, but it did make it hard to maintain my interest in her story. I'd recommend this book only to fans of her father, and in print form rather than audio.

© Amanda Pape - 2012

[This audiobook was borrowed from and returned to my university library.] ( )