The Folded Clock

Reviews / Votes

Exquisite ... This diary is a diary in the way that Thomas De Quincey's Confessions of an English Opium Eater is a confession, or that Daniel Defoe's A Journal of the Plague Year is a journal, or that Sei Shonagon's Pillow Book is a pillow book ... Witty, sly, critical, inventive and adventurous ... A work so artful that it appears to be without artifice. This diary is a record of the interior weather of an adept thinker. In it, the mundane is rendered extraordinary through the alchemy of effortless prose * New York Times * A work of finely tuned artifice, an unashamed performance of privacy ... By the end you come to realise that this is a work of careful, conscious assembly - a life told in tessellated pieces, fitting perfectly together ... Julavits acts as the expert tour guide to her own anxious, fizzing mind ... Revelatory * Financial Times * Julavits is a brilliant craftsman ... Intimate, insightful and very entertaining, this is a singular delight ***** * The Lady * Scathingly funny ... Exhilarating ... An engaging portrait of a woman's sense of identity * Los Angeles Times * Blurs the lines between contemplation and revelation, fact and fiction ... Julavits takes the novel approach of reinventing the form of the diary ... Reveals a whole lot, in often-flawless prose, about motherhood, time, petty jealousies, grand debates, and the irresistible attractions of The Bachelorette * New York Magazine * Playful, intimate and deeply insightful ... What you can tell from this book is that Julavits is someone you truly want to know - even better than you already do from reading her diary * Chicago Tribune * Fascinating ... The humour and the pathos of the book arise from the mismatch between the urgency of a decision in the moment and the awareness that always runs beneath it: that time will eventually make most things not matter * Washington Post * The Folded Clock is a study in awareness, like an affirmative email from a best friend that stands in solidarity, saying "ugh, I'm lost, too!" ... She adds up little reminiscences and thoughts, weaving together a non-linear life. She gets through each day - the tough periods and precious times - and tells the story of a full life * Lenny Letter *