Author: Matthew Batt
Enjoyment Rating: ***
This book would be rated: PG-13 for some language
Source: Personal Copy
Books I've read this year: 131
There have been times when I've thought about writing a memoir. But I've lived a fairly pedestrian life-- without embellishing or seeking out crazy experiences, what would I write about? In some ways, I feel like Matthew Batt wanted to write a memoir, but like me, he had a pretty stable, boring life. But when you're working on your PhD in Creative Writing, you've gotta be writing, right? So Batt ended up writing about the most important thing in his life at the time-- remodeling his house in the Sugarhouse neighborhood of Salt Lake City, with family issues with his wife, mother and grandfather providing the levity that varnishing wood floors and finding scratch-and-dent appliances could not.
For me, the most interesting part of the book was seeing Salt Lake City through Batt's eyes. He and his wife came to the city so he could go to graduate school, and it was never more than a temporary stop for them. As a non-Mormon and a non-Utahn, it was fun to see him process the city's liquor laws, quiet streets on Sundays, and all the other things that make Salt Lake a unique place to live.
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