PositiveThe Adroit Journal... an unflinching, haunting portrait of Black, the bizarre details surrounding her vanishing, and the enduring bonds of sisterhood ... Despite the shifty people Black surrounded herself with and the police reports that never quite add up, most readers will eventually find themselves questioning Bonner’s motives for her assiduous investigation into her sister’s disappearance (or death) ... With her debut memoir, Bonner has written a spellbinding page-turner, a true crime hybrid that will satisfy readers who seek out advanced literary stylings along with readers who want a wildly entertaining, suspenseful tale. Bonner’s background in poetry shows in imagistic flashbacks that illustrate coming-of-age moments and childhood mischiefs that take on a foreboding tone when juxtaposed with the reality of Black as an adult. The only thing I found missing was a deeper exploration of Bonner’s anger toward Black, touched on only briefly ... Of the many interesting narrative choices Bonner makes, my favorite is her choice to include transcribed passages from an interview with Black that was recorded three months before she vanished. The short passages are interspersed between chapters, printed in white font on black pages, to chilling effect.
Ursula K. Le Guin
PositiveThe RumpusLe Guin’s narrative persona in No Time To Spare is complicated: a self-labeled \'old crabby pants,\' a worrier...caring, funny, eloquent, and of course, audacious ... Old age is not sentimental or romanticized in No Time To Spare. The crone might be compassionate, sensible, and wise, able to explain the complexities of human life to an alien species, but any such gained wisdom is threatened by the natural consequences of physical and mental aging. What this book isn’t, however, is an aging memoir, one that might explore an elderly writer’s compunctions, age-related medical issues, or fear of mortality ... Le Guin remarked that old age \'gets written about by people who aren’t old and they imagine what it’s like to be and they don’t get it right.\' In No Time to Spare, Le Guin seems intent on getting it right.
