Park Slope's Julie Metz, who read at Brooklyn Reading Works' Memoirathon in 2008, just got a nice review in the Times from Janet Maslin about her new memoir, Perfection, A Memoir of Betrayal and Renewal.
In addition to writing a memoir, Julie Metz is a graphic designer who runs design firm specializing in book covers, as well as identity and brochure design. Since 1988, her cover designs have appeared in the AIGA 50 Books, 50 Covers Show, as well as Graphis and PRINT magazine. Here's the mention in the NY Times. The book is available at the Community Bookstore.
"Julie Metz’s “Perfection” is a visual standout for good reason: Ms.
Metz designs book jackets. And she has given her all to the vibrant
tulip on her memoir’s cover. She also gave her all to what she thought
was a solid marriage. Then her husband died suddenly, in 2003, and left
behind a secret history of philandering, complete with e-mail trail. He
left one particularly devious lover in the same small town where Ms.
Metz found herself trapped as a new widow. How would she rear her
daughter there when the daughter’s best friend’s mother (chick-book aficionados can follow this, no problem) was her husband’s married girlfriend?
"Ms.
Metz provides a blow-by-blow account of how she processed these
revelations. Little did she know that the man who wrote her a florid
poem for Valentine’s Day
was also sending pornographic holiday e-mail messages to at least two
women with whom he was having affairs. (“I had to smile at the
efficiency of it all,” Ms. Metz writes about this cut-and-paste job.)
Little did she realize how truly distant her husband was. And little
did she imagine that she would ever be living one of the most basic
dreams of chick lit: going back to dating after years of marriage. Ms.
Metz changes the names of the men in this book, but she brings
refreshing candor to a startling, painful tale."
I’d be curious to know what difference “brooklyn native” feels that “how well provided her husband left the both of them” makes. Does this absolve him of responsibility for his decisions? Does it give his actions a patina of self-respect and respect for his family? Does it mean that Metz should ignore the pain, betrayal, and confusion she will likely feel for years? Should she not have written the book at all? Hopefully, his posthumous generosity gave her the time and resources to write without having to worry about earning a living. Better that he should have treated Metz and their daughter with as much thoughtful consideration when he was alive. At that point it would have mattered.
I’ll be curious to see if she mentions that she blames her in-laws for his behavior and keeps her daughter from them and also how well provided her husband left the both of them.
Just another bitter women.
Metz’s writing has its origin in horror. I’d disembowel the muse to avoid her pain.
It kills me when people who do other things for a living (Obama, Julie Metz) are also acclaimed writers!