Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Journalist and playwright (whose musical Independents was a prize-winning selection in the 2012 New York International Fringe Festival) Keegan's posthumous collection, with an introduction by Anne Fadiman, serves as a tribute to the author, who died in a car crash in 2012, five days after graduating Yale University. The book illuminates the optimism and neurosis felt by new grads everywhere: "The notion that it's too late to do anything is comical. It's hilarious. We're graduating college. We're so young." Though the collection features more fiction than non-, the author's voice is similar in both. Her essays hide musings about her life and relationships under innocuous subjects: her mother's over-protectiveness about Keegan's celiac disease, for example, leads Keegan to a deeper understanding of what it means to be a parent. In her fiction, the thematic preoccupations are closer to the surface, such as the relationship definition problems a girl faces when the boy she was "involved, of course, but not associated [with]" suddenly dies. Like every millennial who's seen irony elevated to an art form, Keegan brings self-awareness to the collective insecurity of her peers, even as she captures it with a precision that only comes from someone who feels it too. How unfortunate that she will never know the value readers will find in her work. Agent: Lane Zachary, Zachary Shuster Harmsworth. (Apr.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by Library Journal Review
Newly graduated from Yale, about to start a job at the New Yorker, Keegan was killed in a car accident when her boyfriend fell asleep at the wheel. With her death, the world lost a most promising writer. This work is a compilation of essays and stories, some found on her accident-damaged laptop, others from class assignments, and the title essay originally printed in the Yale Daily News that went viral after her death. The introduction to Marina's writing life, composed by her professor and friend Anne Fadiman, is both informing and poignant. Keegan's voice is clear, passionate, and both uncertain and wise through the whole collection. Narrator Emily Woo Zeller understands that distinctive voice and delivers a strong performance through the entire audiobook. The only quibble is a technical one: not enough space is left between each entry. VERDICT Listeners will be looking for more from this author, but, sadly, there is no more.-Ann Brownson, Eastern Illinois Univ. Lib., Charleston (c) Copyright 2014. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
A collection of essays and short stories by a Yale graduate whose untimely death at age 22 cut short a promising journalistic and literary career. Keegan graduated from Yale as a literary golden girl with a position awaiting her at the New Yorker. But before she could even begin her job, she was killed in a car crash. This book brings together a sampling of some of Keegan's fiction and nonfiction in homage to what could have been had this remarkable young woman lived to fulfill her potential. The first section brings together short stories that showcase Keegan's ability to probe the murky, often unspoken emotional depths that haunt all relationships with fearlessness, lucidity and sensitivity. Not all of her fictional pieces, which focus primarily on exploring male/female and family dynamics, are equally strong. But they are always thoughtful, intelligent, and surprising and reveal a writer eager to find her literary voice by taking risks with both form and content. At their best, they are ferociously insightful. The second section includes essays, most of which appeared in the Yale Daily News or the Yale Herald. With wit, style and verve, Keegan explores everything from her lifelong struggle with celiac disease to a day in the life of a professional exterminator. Her most affecting pieces, however, are about the members of her own generation, many of whom feel strong, sometimes-overwhelming social pressure to seek validation in well-paying but unfulfilling jobs. "We can't, we MUST not lose this sense of possibility," she writes, "because in the end, it's all we have." As humane as it is sympathetic, Keegan's work is a poignantly inspiring reminder of what is possible in the pursuit of dreams. A well-deserved tribute to a talented young writer.]] Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
