In more ways than one, it reminded me of Patti Smith’s airy, bohemian memoirs, but less dreamy, more tangible and coherent (and Solnit criticizes many of the artists Smith reveres). It’s more of a series of snapshots of a different time and place, a portrait of the artist as a young woman, recounting the watershed moments in her formative years (and beyond) that led to her becoming the writer and activist that she is, while fighting against a culture that wanted to silence and erase her, make her disappear. You won’t learn much about Solnit as a person as far as hard facts go, and more often than not, it was not so much about her, but rather about what was happening around her, and how that influenced her life’s trajectory.

Keeping her background as a writer on art, culture, places, and political and environmental issues in mind, it might not come as a surprise that this is not your standard biography.

I was, in that room, that time, clear and angry about my nonexistence that was otherwise mostly just brooding anxiety somewhere below the surface.” A great urge to disrupt the event overtook me I wanted to shout and to shout that I was not disrupting it because a woman is no one, and to shout that since I did not exist my shouting did not exist either and could not be objectionable. “I became silently furious, back in the day when I had no clear feminist ideas, just swirling inchoate feelings of indignation and insubordination.

I love the title, and it’s really the aptest one she could’ve gone with, since the thread running throughout each chapter is how she found her voice in a society that would’ve preferred to rob women of one. If you liked those, this more personal piece will likely resonate with you too-her essays have a very distinct voice that blends the political and the anecdotal (the political is personal, after all) while remaining inclusive, and this memoir is written in the same vein. This memoir was my first foray into Solnit’s long-form writing after having become a fan of her feminist essays, through which she gained popularity. Title: Recollections Of My Nonexistence: A Memoir

Recollections of my nonexistence review