Stop-Time

Frank Conroy's richly detailed memoir Stop-Time is comprised of a collection of scenes drawn primarily from Conroy’s childhood. The book is so perceptive and full of life; Conroy makes the ordinary sublime and fills it with the shock of recognition. Here is an excellent interview with Conroy about his writing: “I don’t believe in the natural writer. I believe in the natural reader who gradually begins to write. You can’t write independent of literature, so you read, you read, you read, you read, you read, and then you begin to write. A lot of it is mysterious…. Good narrative puts the reader and writer in a position of equality. The text forms a bridge between two imaginations.”