Spinning by Tillie Walden
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
The problem with memoirs, if the author is being true to themselves, is that things don’t always happen in a neat, perfectly rounded up way, the way they do in fictionalized stories. As I was reading this, I didn’t realize it was a memoire, and I kept wondering why the author didn’t expound on what she was writing about, give more details, but the author is in her early 20s. This is her fifth book. As far as I can tell, she is entirely self-taught, so for me to be asking for things that she probably hasn’t finished processing is a bit far fetched.
I bring this up, because, for example, she mentions that she realized she was a lesbian early on, but didn’t know what to do about it. Didn’t know how long to hide it. Didn’t know, exactly how to act on it. She says she realized that she got into figure skating because of the love that her first instructor showed towards her, the mother figure she wished she had, and she realizes that is the only reason she continued to skate, as she was still looking for that love.
This is a sad, longing story, of a girl lost in the world of figure skating, going through the motions, but not happy about it.
And this is a girl that at some point realized that art was what gave her the love and passion and joi de vivre that she once felt for figure skating, and so abandoned it to focus on her art.
I can’t wait to see what she writes next. Deep, interesting read.