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
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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