Notebook of Lost Things

By Megan Staffel

A novel about the power of love. Helene is forty-one; she enjoys sex with Harry, owner of Better Days, the local bar. But she will leave him if he cannot, just once, rise above the mundane and use his... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1569471606
• ISBN13: 9781569471609
• Release Date: January 1999
• Publisher: Soho Press
• Length: 224 Pages
• Weight: 0.90 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 5.9" x 8.6"

Customer Reviews

an outstanding story

My husband studied with Staffel, and he's always praised her as a teacher. Now it's my turn to praise her as a writer (from a fellow author). I read "She Wanted Something Else" a few years ago and thought that it was good, but I didn't connect with those characters. In "Notebook" I felt so drawn to the characters--William, Ute, the teenagers, the fat mother--that I read the entire book in one sitting. My husband's grandmother, mother and uncle all survived the bombing of Dresden, so that particular topic resonated for me as well. I wish I could get my hands on Staffel's short story collection, and I hope she writes more novels!

Excellent Book

Thias book was so wonderful--it was so true to life and descriptive. I wish I could get other books by this author but I see that they are out of print. The characters were so real. They keep your attention. This story reminds us that although life is not always roses, there is still joy to be found if you look for it!

Powerful narrative

Ms. Staffel has used her obviously prodigous power as a narrative writer to present three generations of spellbinding people. This is a novel of people that have accepted their lives but refuse to allow their lives to overwhelm them. Were this not such a powerfully written work I would find it comparable to the writing of Carson McCullers, but it is not. This is a more beautifully conceived and intricately crafted book. I have read it twice and will read it again.

A wonderful out of the ordinary view of ordinary people.

For me a good book is revealed by how little time it takes me to read it. I read "The Notebook of Lost Things" in a day. The title is revealed in the book as something Helen treasures from her mother's past in firebombed Dresden. The intricate story is about ordinary people with quiet, recognizable lives. The prose is direct, economical and powerful. Deceivingly so. Staffel is an observer of astonishing powers. She notices the ordinary things we all do with an unbelievable attention to detail and nuance. The book takes a smart, perceptive look at loss and the resulting sadness. It is critical of lives lived solely for selfish reasons. Ultimately the book is an enlightened musing on how common people transcend ordinary lives to learn extraordinary lessons. It is a remarkably imaginative story. Complex and simple at the same time. Staffel's writing reminds me of Jane Smiley, particularly in the book "A Thousand Acres" in her clarity and simplicity. I can not say enough about this book. It is a sensuous, and very honest look at human nature and foible. I am continually trying to figure out how so much power is jammed into such a small book. And with such grace. Two books I have read lately sustain me with much pleasure and much to think about. Toni Morrison's "Paradise" and Megan Staffel's "The Notebook of Lost Things". In my opinion, Staffel's new novel has firmly established her as a writer of great significance.

A powerful book

I think it's an amazing book.. It's small and quiet,but I was not able to put it down.The writing is poetic and haunting. Very simple in a way and very profound at the same time. The notebook in the title refers to the notebook kept by a women who, with her daughter, survived the firebombing of Dresden. The notebooks were her means of holding and preserving the things that were lost to her in the destruction of the city. Most of the book takes place in a small town in western New York State where the women finally settles and actually, most of the novel takes place after she has died.The book traces the intersection of the lives of a few people who live in this same town, her daughter, who finds the last surviving notebook, being one of them. Always in the background is the presence of the women from Dresden and how her spirit touches them. The whole book is a kind of notebook of lost things - because of the way it catches and holds the lives and losses of the main characters. I thought it was an incredible book and when I finished it, I read it again. The images have really stayed with me. Many of my friends that I have told about the book have had a similar reaction.It's by far the most moving book I've read this year.