Customer Reviews:
 MERRY Recluse? September 13, 2005
4 out of 12 found this review helpful
Well, I've read all her books. There is something about Caroline that you can always associate with - maybe the common "fears" women are always prone to. But, MERRY Recluse - hardly. Caroline didn't seem to fit in the skin she was in - in so many ways. Been there. Closer to the end she SO DID - in her passion for dogs. I have ALWAYS been a fan of Caroline's, yet I find such sadness (and lack of confidence) in her. Just wish she could have lived doing cartwheels, hugging her dog and not questioning or interrogating herself so harshly. I think we all question why we just don't seem to FIT IN - as Caroline obviously did. Maybe the answer is that we don't have to. I sadly acknowlege her death.
 Remembering Caroline November 29, 2004
19 out of 20 found this review helpful
Actually, Caroline died in 2002.Her obituary in the Boston Phoenix read in part: CAROLINE KNAPP, who for 11 years worked for the Phoenix newspapers - first as a staff writer and editor, and then as a contributing columnist - died on Monday, June 3, from complications arising from lung cancer. She was 42.
As a writer, Caroline had a signature style. Her grace sometimes masked the broad stretch of her range. As a reporter, she was dogged and inventive....And as an editor, she balanced exacting standards with a gift for nurture.
But it was as a columnist and a memoirist that she made her mark. She launched a feature called "Out There," which is now written by several contributors, but which in her time at the Phoenix was her special preserve. Whether she was writing about politics, feminism, or the perilous state of modern relationships, the tone was unmistakably her own. Reserved in person, she was ruthlessly self-revelatory at the keyboard. The common denominator of her private and public selves was her wry sense of humor.
Caroline died at Mount Auburn Hospital, where she was closely attended during the days before her death by her family, her friend and companion of many years, photographer Mark Morelli, and her dog, Lucille. Caroline and Mark were married in May, a few weeks after she was diagnosed."
[...]
Intelligent and insightful August 4, 2004
13 out of 13 found this review helpful
These essays are, in a way, a summary of Knapp's other books, dealing with her struggles with anorexia and alcoholism; the death of both her parents from cancer; her relationships with both her twin sister and her beloved dog; her fondness for new shoes and endless games of computer solitaire; the horror of bad-hair days and bad-all-over-body days. The writing is elegant and clear. Though the essays are based on her own experience, there is no impression of narcissism. Knapp had a talent for searching her hard-won self-knowledge for those kernels of truth that apply to so many of us. By the end of the book, you'll feel as though she could have been a friend of yours, if only you had been that fortunate. One curiosity -- although she explored so many addictions and preoccupations in print, it seems she never addressed the smoking that, as her mother warned her (in "Drinking: A Love Story," a book that I also recommend), eventually killed her.
re: Ms. Knapps death July 20, 2004
1 out of 7 found this review helpful
just an fyi.Ms. Knapp died in 2002,not 2001
How she died July 11, 2004
5 out of 7 found this review helpful
In answer to readers' questions about how Caroline Knapp died, she was diagnosed with advanced-stage lung cancer in the spring of 2001 and died shortly thereafter. During the final weeks of her life, she married her longtime companion whom she talks about in her writings, and left Lucille in his loving care.
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