The Folded Clock: A Diary

The Folded Clock: A Diary by Heidi Julavits
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Sum it up in a sentence (or two): Heidi Julavits chronicles two years of her life in diary form, then "folds" the entries into this book.

First thoughts: Solid concept, not a fan of the execution.

Expand on that: I went between understanding and relating to various entries and being put off by her writing style and some of the content. Some parts felt too self-aware and that knocked me out of the narrative. I think I had high hopes for this book based on other reviews and my own personal relationship to journaling, so I was disappointed that I couldn't relate and/or didn't care about the story.

Favorite quotes:
"At a certain point, it seems more polite to just become the person people assume you to be." -p98

"There's nothing she hasn't thought of, and thought of and thought of, poor woman." -p112

"I wanted to escape my head because my head is so stupid these days. I wanted to be inside someone else's head." -p201

Final thoughts: Okay, so this book wasn't for me, or at least not for the person I am now. Lots of things matched up: writer, Rome, diary-lover, internal processor, ... but I felt out of sync with Julavits. Am I too young? Just not in the same head space? Who knows. I curious to hear about other readers' experiences.


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