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About The daily Astorian. (Astoria, Or.) 1961-current | View Entire Issue (March 25, 2021)
BOOKMONGER Memoir on coming to terms with oneself ‘Wife | Daughter | Self’ ponders mortality and regret Portland-based Forest Avenue Press has been in business for nearly a decade. Its mission of publishing “literary fi ction on a joyride” — along with the occasional mem- oir — continues. The press’ publisher is Laura Stan- fi ll, who launched the Main Street Writers Movement in 2017. It’s centered on the idea of building a strong literary ecosystem by supporting a region’s local authors, literary organizations and businesses. Such a movement seems almost pre- scient. It’s no secret that, as we begin to claw our way out of a global pandemic, small and local businesses everywhere need our support more than ever. That means eschewing Amazon and instead infusing local economies with much-needed dollars The Illahee Apartments Why Live Anywhere Else? 1046 Grand Avenue Astoria, OR 97103 503-325-2280 14 // COASTWEEKEND.COM This week’s book ‘Wife | Daughter | Self’ by Beth Kephart Forest Avenue Press — 252 pp — $16 — in part, by patronizing local booksellers. Forest Avenue’s latest off ering is one of those “occasional memoirs” it confesses to publishing. “Wife | Daughter | Self” is by Beth Kephart, an author who has written more than 30 books and has been a National Book Award fi nalist. She has received both a prestigious fellowship for The Pew Center for Arts & Heritage and a National Endow- ment for the Arts g rant. Despite all of that, Kephart still grapples with self-esteem, some of the identities she has assumed and the roles that have been thrust upon her. “I write to fi nd out what I know, or if I know, or if I might know sometime soon,” she confesses in this memoir, which fl ows like stream-of-consciousness. But don’t be fooled — Kephart’s collec- tion of sentences, paragraphs and essays is actually a carefully curated deep-dive into key relationships that have shaped, aggra- vated, challenged and nurtured her. These writings refl ect on her interactions with her husband and her parents — especially her widowed father — and her perception of how they perceive her. Ultimately, it comes home to roost within her own complicated, confl icted self. Sometimes Kephart is her harshest critic — she is the ineff ectual daughter, unworthy partner, inadequate mother, unsuccessful writer and teaching fraud. Kephart captures these thoughts, pins them down and dissects them. It can be diffi cult to read her searing self-assessments — but that’s probably because they’re relatable. Just because we can’t be the ideal, why do our imaginations often veer toward self-loathing? In examining not only her own choices, but also those of other writers and artists she admires, Kephart invites readers to con- Author Beth Kephart ponders mortality and regret in her memoir ‘Wife | Daughter | Self.’ template their choices too. Kephart shares in precise detail some of the formative moments of her childhood. She recalls make-or-break-or-bend lessons as a wife and her experiences in serving as her father’s primary caregiver. She ponders mortality and regret, and wonders how, in what she calls “the fra- gility and scorch of this present time,” she (and we) might proceed. Kephart discovers that some answers have been lying within reach all along. But “Wife | Daughter | Self” also proposes that it is still valuable to question and that seek- ing to “become” is best a lifelong quest. The Bookmonger is Barbara Lloyd McMichael, who writes this weekly column focusing on the books, authors and publish- ers of the Pacifi c Northwest. Contact her at bkmonger@nwlink.com