Larry Smith (1) (1968–)

Like the other six-word memoir books (why isn't "I Can't Keep My Own Secrets," the teen version, listed in the series?) this book will keep you highly entertained for a few hours, if you go at it all at once, or for weeks if you have the self-control to spread out the fun. The list of celebrity contributors is much longer in this book than the first and includes Isabelle Allende, Tony Kushner, Alison Bechdel, Junot Diaz and other well-known authors. Bob Barker (My life story --- spay or show more neuter.), Neil Patrick Harris (Barney...Doogie...! Average names elude me.), and other mainstream stars' submissions also appear.*

"It all changed in an instant" boasts of more artwork than previous books in the series, and the back matter also includes longer stories that expound on or explain some of some of the six-word memoirs throughout the book. Once again, though, the real soul of this book is the stories from people you will never know.

Made weird children -- will die proud. (27)
Michael Stipe mumbled my formative years. (57)
Little me would've liked be me. (84)
And because there is always one that hits too close to home:
My cat is an ungrateful brat. (108)

*All page numbers and quotes taken from an advanced uncorrected proof and may not match the published copy. show less

Perhaps you recall the recent Six-Word Memoir craze spawned by Larry Smith of SMITH magazine. Succinct and creative as those six-word memoirs are, they didn't create quite enough space for all the stories people wanted to tell, and Smith found while traveling across the country for readings of the Six-Word Memoir series that everyone seemed to have a story to tell, a story about some singular event that had a life-changing impact on the teller. From those stories, The Moment was born. It show more started as a section of the SMITH magazine website, where life-altering stories poured in from all corners, and eventually became this book where Larry Smith has compiled 125 of the captivating tales.

Contained within the pages are a variety of life-defining moments. Some of them involve great teachers making a difference in the lives of their students, others involve falling in love or enduring the death of a loved one, still others mark the journey through parenthood. Some of my favorites, though, are moments that are so mundane that it's hard but oddly comforting to discover that the moment that changes your outlook on life can be so small and can be brought on by seeing a simple gesture of true love or discovering you're not so very different from the moth that keeps missing the open window trying to escape from a car.

With its very short essays written by 125 different authors from all walks of life, The Moment can't help but be a little uneven. Some of the moments made me scratch my head and wonder just why they proved to be so life-changing. Others I appreciated for their honesty. Some I found easy to relate to personally, and others managed to give me chills of understanding, of sympathy, of wonder even while they helped me to understand a whole different perspective on life. Some of my favorites included "Assembly" in which Vivian Chum discovers the insidiousness and unfairness of racism, Gregory Maguire's "Wicked Start" where he finds the inspiration for his Wicked series, Steve Almond's story of the impact of a fan latter from John Updike, Michael Castleman's story of the night his mother refused to cook dinner and he discovered the power of books, and Rebecca Woolf's "Tomorrowland" that perfectly captures that feeling between loss and possibility as she watches her son growing up day by day. Okay - and many, many more, there are lots of powerful stories contained in these pages.

I love the idea behind The Moment and enjoyed the essays themselves, but if I had it to do over again, I would not have requested it as a review copy (from Harper Perennial, thanks!). I would much sooner have read this book at my own pace, reading a few essays here and there between other books rather than trying to gulp them down all at once. Many are profound and thought-provoking, and would be much better enjoyed at a leisurely pace. As for me, I found myself pushing to get through them so I could write my review and move onto other things, and so some of my enjoyment was lost in the process. I'm confident, however, that should you happen to pick up a copy of the book and read it without obligation, you will find it as satisfying as I should have. show less

The editors of SMITH Magazine, an online "vibrant community of storytellers", invited its readers to contribute six-word memoirs, and roughly a thousand were selected for this book. Some authors are famous, most are not. Many of the memoirs are pedestrian ("Will draw for food and coffee"), but a small handful were thought provoking. A couple of my favorites:

"Explained Hitler, Shakespeare. Couldn't explain self."
"I died at an early age."
"I hear nothing and see everyone."

I found it mildly show more interesting, and it was probably the fastest book I've ever read. This would make a nice Christmas present or birthday gift for certain people, so I would recommend it for that reason. show less

This book is fantastic. I bought myself a copy of the first one, Not Quite What I Was Planning, after hearing about it online, and loved it, then took it around and showed it to everyone I knew, then took it around again and annoyed them all with how much I loved it. But the first time they loved it, too.

The premise of the books is obviously to write your own life story in just six words (see more here), a practice inspired by a famous legend about Ernest Hemingway. He was challenged, it’s show more said, to write a novel in six words. His response? “For sale: baby shoes, never worn.” Also according to the legend, he once called it his best work. It certainly hit me harder than The Old Man and the Sea.

The best thing about these books, though (there are currently four of them out) is that the writers actually are “famous & obscure.” In It All Changed in an Instant, you’ll see memoirs attributed to Somebodies like Michael Moore and Isabel Allende right next to ones by people you’ve never heard of. Even better than the best part, these people-you-have-never-heard-of write the best ones! Anyone, literally anyone, can submit a memoir to SMITH for consideration. I myself have done a few. Just head on over to the link I supplied above and give it a go. As The New Yorker said in their six-word review, “You could spend a lifetime brainstorming.” Five stars.

P.S.- it is my advice to take these a few at a time for best effect. After a while, as with all little-this-and-that books, they tend to blend together if you read too many. And seriously, take your copy around and share it. People will love you more. show less