Hampl wonders about what we miss when we no longer allow ourselves to simply get lost in thought. Her sharp and unconventional book — a swirl of memoir, travelogue and biography of some of history's champion day-dreamers — is its very own Exhibit A, making the case for the profound value of letting the mind wander ... Unlike stories, these small moments or 'vignettes,' as Hampl says, lead us 'down the rabbit hole of thought.' That sounds self-indulgent, but Hampl is such an incisive writer, a reader comes to trust that those rabbit holes are worth tumbling down into ... Like most of the rest of this odd and haunting book, it's impossible to do justice to the cumulative power of Hampl's dream-weaver writing style by just quoting a few lines. You have to go on the whole voyage with her, take the detours, be willing to let yourself get becalmed in thought. The payoff — because, of course, we're all still looking for a payoff — is that by wasting some of your time with Hampl, you'll understand more of what makes life worth living.
For all the vital, sensuous, enrapturing descriptions that engender a powerful sense of presence, this is also a contemplation of absence and solitude as Hampl tenderly contends with the sudden death of her husband. An exquisite anatomy of mind and an incandescent reflection on nature, being, and rapture.
...a wise and beautiful ode to the imagination ... Delightful anecdotes abound ... But as with any memoir, the main character is Hampl herself. As always, she is on a journey to understand herself, and in doing so, to help us learn how to discover what is most precious and enduring in our own lives. It is an honor to encounter her anew, and to have her gently remind us that sometimes it’s wise to put down our to-do lists and to give ourselves over to musing out the window, to remembering that 'the imagination is the crucible of freedom.' ”
In keeping with this book’s theme, Ms. Hampl’s prose can demand some patience. Instead of hewing to a clear narrative, she prefers to throw together notions about life, memory and writing, and to tug readers in unexpected directions ... Yet her blend of literary criticism and personal anecdote is occasionally not just meandering but confusing. Her lyrical repetitions and abstractions can be as poetic as prayer. But sometimes she chases beauty at the expense of clarity ... For all of its profound questions, this book is most moving when Ms. Hampl is describing her newfound disorientation as a widow.
Anecdotal and associative, thoughtful without the usual posturing of thoughtfulness, the work attains a meditative momentum that very nearly overrides the bereavement at its heart ... The Art of the Wasted Day is not a widow book, even as the ghostly subnarrative, start to finish, is the recent death of her husband. That her sadness at the loss is felt throughout illustrates the paradox of restraint—how reticence, handled artfully, can resonate an emotion as fully as any direct expression ... The effect is of an intensified intimacy; it is at once sorrowful and affirming. Even in absence she keeps his immediacy ... A reader could easily speed through these sentences, carried along by the sway of the language, but they repay a closer attention. That 'DNA of detail,' and the exhilarating suggestion that the precise capture of a subject can render it transcendent —these are insights that can only come after long apprenticeship, and their meanings deepen with contemplation.
...he ruminates, putting her subjects down and picking them up again, not quite settling anywhere for long. She lets her mind wander, as one does on a wasted day. Readers familiar with her work will recognize the confident tone and poetry-infused language ... As Hampl wanders through memory, she explores the meaning of writing, and distinguishes between its inherently expressive nature and what she considers the more limited range of expression of art and music. Regardless, no other medium more accurately reflects Montaigne’s duality of consciousness.. And yet, for all its intellectual architecture, this is, at heart, a love letter to her husband and a reminder that wasting time with loved ones is not wasting time at all.
It’s a pensive, pleasantly meandering book that blends memoir with travel and biographical information about some of Hampl’s exemplars of solitary, introspective living, and it begins, quite literally, with daydreaming ... the magic is in the day-to-day details. Hampl also affirms the value of living a life of orderly solitude, of the freedom arising from discipline ... Hampl drifts and dreams through seemingly irrelevant back alleys of memory and experience. The latter is a case of form following function: her book wanders along with her mind, in keeping with her definition of memoir as 'lyrical quest literature,' where meaning always hovers above the basics of plot.
Patricia Hampl's The Art of the Wasted Day is a remarkable memoir of loss and renewal ... In the first section, 'Timelessness,' Hampl offers the first of many beautiful moments, the kind that should make any conscientious reader furiously annotate with multi-colored pens. She sees words mostly as music ... The Art of the Wasted Day shimmers and glows as it takes the reader through countries, time zones, centuries, almost like the title heroine of Virginia Woolf's Orlando ... Hampl has given birth here to a beautiful, stunning, intense look at the graceful and sublime responsibilities of a writer who understands the difference between romanticizing loneliness and elevating the literary obligation to craft.
Although reveling in solitude, the author is no stranger to loneliness; her husband’s recent, unexpected death has left her bereft. Grief pulses through the memoir, a feeling different, entirely, from 'the solitude within the mind.' 'Loneliness eats away at you,' writes the author. 'Solitude fills and fills you.' A captivating and revelatory memoir.
....a wonderfully lavish and leisurely exploration of the art of daydreaming ... As Hampl rumates and escapes, her late husband is palpably present. Hampl captures art of day dreaming with astonishing simplicity and clarity in this remarkable and touching book.
