Gail Caldwell remembers Caroline Knapp
By AMY FINCH | August 9, 2010
Caroline Knapp |
Before Caroline Knapp died of lung cancer — in 2002, at age 42 — she'd gone bestseller with the most private of torments: her alcoholism (in Drinking: A Love Story) and her anorexia (Appetites: Why Women Want). She'd also written about the special connection she had with her dog (Pack of Two: The Intricate Bond Between People and Dogs). And, for the Phoenix's popular "Out There" column, she'd kept readers guessing how much Caroline was in "Alice K. (not her real initial)," her neurotic-insomniac alter ego.Prominent and transparent as she was on the page, Caroline was opaque in the office. We worked at the Phoenix for years and never exchanged a word — which speaks as much to my nature as to hers. Still, she was elusive. Even a social-butterfly co-worker described her as "one of those people whose face you never actually see," and it made perfect sense: someone who could duck out of view in plain sight. Lack of eye contact was only part of it — her quiet skittishness seemed to go deeper than that.
One person who got a protracted, full-on look at Caroline was Gail Caldwell, who had also written for the Phoenix before becoming a book critic at the Globe (where she won the 2001 Pulitzer Prize for criticism). As Caldwell describes their friendship in Let's Take the Long Way Home, at first, each woman read the other as poised and put-together. Later, they realized they shared a persistently independent spirit, a certain seriousness and self-doubt, a knack for twisted romantic entanglements, and alcoholism. And a love of dogs. Each had recently become a dog owner, and this was what ignited their friendship — many long walks with Gail's Clementine and Caroline's Lucille through the Middlesex Fells Reservation. Perhaps their strongest bond had to do with their common need to be halfway left alone. They had learned, Caldwell writes, "that we could exist on parallel tracks in silent space."Let's Take the Long Way Home is like Caldwell's previous memoir, A Strong West Wind, in its gorgeous language and lack of spectacle. No big secrets are revealed; the Caroline Knapp eulogized here is as smart, intense, and driven as her own writings made clear. Even within the cocoon of her friendship with Gail, Caroline comes across as tightly wound and worry prone. One scene, though, is surprising and funny: Caroline acting like a lunatic in front of dozens of people as a diversion to save Gail from embarrassment. Caroline is willing to lose her well-guarded dignity for her friend. It's sweet to see.
Related:
Vegas and Jungleland, Fast and loose, Coffeenomics, More 
- Vegas and Jungleland
Paul Shaffer is a happenin’ cat. Pick an It Moment from pop culture over the past 30 years and Shaffer was there. He was an original band member on Saturday Night Live . He played hapless promo guy Artie Fufkin in This Is Spinal Tap . Disco? He co-wrote “It’s Raining Men.” And he helped David Letterman break ground as his glittery, ironic bandleader/sidekick.
- Fast and loose
You're a cocky film-school grad with a drawer full of socko screenplays and Hollywood ambitions. But it's all California dreamin', as you're shivering in New England, cutting public-service announcements and digitizing educational videos, your only brush with the studios those Netflix rentals.
- Coffeenomics
In 50 states and 49 countries, the experience is the same: a placid sense of place, air suffused with the rich aromatics of fresh-brewed espresso. Customers dollop cream and sprinkle brown sugar into their drinks. Behind the counter, green-clad baristas grind beans and steam milk, smiling as they take orders in a made-up language.
- Video: Our 10 most popular videos from 2009
The most popular videos from the Phoenix in 2009
- Reading is fundamentalist
In 2009, liberals held firm control of the presidency, the US Senate, and the US House of Representatives. But there was one realm where conservatives dominated: the New York Times bestseller list.
- Booked solid
The holidays are over — time to hit the books.
- Interview: Raj Patel
"The opposite of consumption is not thrift but generosity; if you look at happiness studies, we are happiest when we give things away rather than when we accumulate or when we don't spend."
- Searching for Stephen King
In 1983, Doubleday published yet another book from the increasingly renowned Stephen King, whose Carrie and The Shining (to name just two) were already popular books and movies.
- Heart keeps beating
Storytelling is largely about character, and writer Thomas Cobb came up with a doozy when he conceived Bad Blake.
- Interview: Ozzy Osbourne
Long before he bit the heads off bats and doves, Ozzy Osbourne worked in a cheerless abattoir in the hardscrabble Aston section of Birmingham, England, where for 18 months he held such titles as "cow killer," "tripe hanger," "hoof puller," and "pig stunner."
- Excerpt: Evening’s Empire by Bill Flanagan
In this chapter, "The Drugs Don't Work," aging rock star Emerson Cutler and his manager, Jack Flynn, are seeking inspiration — and desperately trying to jumpstart his career.
- Less
Topics:
Books
, Entertainment, Books, Dogs, More
, Entertainment, Books, Dogs, Boston Phoenix, Gail Caldwell, Wheelchair, anorexia, Let's Take the Long Way Home, Less
