Being Lolita: A Memoir by Alisson Wood
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Alisson Wood‘s memoir is a moving, difficult, and powerful story about being groomed by her high school English teacher and the resulting fallout in her life as she slowly unwound herself from his control.
On its own, the story is compelling. A collector of ephemera, Alisson was able to draw upon letters, notes, receipts, and other bits from those moments in her young life in order to create rich, vivid scenes as we sweep through her high school and college years.
But, she’s not just recounting that time in her life, she’s also viewing it through the lens of her adult self, who sees the same events through a different lens. As a result, she’s not just telling a story. She’s building a world around these two characters (who happen to be real people) and using that world to explore large questions, such as the dark aspects of a patriarchal society where adults find it easier to turn a blind eye to what might be happening.
What makes the book and Alisson’s writing so beautiful is that she does all of this in a way that leads the reader to those understandings, as if they were inevitable (which is the point).
I can’t recommend this book enough. The only thing that kept me from finishing this in one sitting was my own time constraints. I promise you won’t be able to put this down!
My interview with Alisson Wood.
