MAKING UP FOR LOST TIME
Welcome to the age of the personal essay.
Making Up for Lost Time is a collection of personal essays on many topics and in many tones, from humorous to whimsical to philosophical, and a fanfare to a literary movement.
The essays in Making Up for Lost Time address life and death and much in between—a perfect cup of coffee, a perfect day for a colonoscopy, parenting, a mammogram for men, a day in traffic court, self-assessment, swimming...and more.
While the essays in Making Up for Lost Time hold together as a portrait of the writer and as a proverbial day in the life, the book need not be read that way. One great attribute of the personal essay as a literary form is how well it adapts to the vagaries of the reader. You can partake of as much or as little as you wish without concern that you are losing the thread.
The personal essay is a venerable literary form ideally suited to our times: expressive, immediate, eclectic and flexible: a perfect one-on-one communication between one writer and one reader. Making Up for Lost Time sets the contemporary standard for this resurgent genre.
My first collection of essays, Making up For Lost Time, was published February 23, 2011.
To preview or order Making up for Lost Time please click this hyperlink: http://amzn.to/eJxlXn
This is what reviewers wrote about MAKING UP FOR LOST TIME
“I found Eric Sonnenschein's book of essays, "Making Up For Lost Time", to be a very enjoyable read filled with many witty and clever observations about a variety of topics which affect many of our lives. Eric has the uncanny ability to bring a sense of warmth and eloquence to subjects ranging from the provocative to the mundane and somehow infuses them with a fresh and vibrant perspective. He is a gifted and talented individual who provides a literary masterpiece in a short book of essays! A definite read for anyone looking for an entertaining twist on the many things we experience in life and/or for those who want to learn from a true master who has honed his craft well!”
The author moves through a variety of topics, all unified by the sensibility of living in NYC. It would be hard to imagine certain of the essays, such as "Chat Snatcher" in which the author discovers an eavesdropping woman in a cafe stealing his ideas, taking place anywhere else. This collection is curiously hypnotic, in that these pieces are really hybrids between literary short stories and essays, often employing the best techniques of both. Sonnenschein is unflinching in his depiction of some of his own misadventures and struggles in business and in family life, misadventures with which many of us can identify. The long essay "Swimming" is a meditative piece which delves into no less than the philosophy and meaning of life. There is a certain optimistic melancholy to the tone of these pieces, reminiscent of the classic Russian short story masters, reflecting a realism about life, yet a hopefulness in spite of everything. Glimpses into the world of writing ad copy are particularly wry and rewarding. There is lots to enjoy here and to learn from.
