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Palimpsest (Identities and Issues in Literature)

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The Work

Palimpsest: A Memoir chronicles the first thirty-nine years in the life of its author. As the title indicates, the book reads like a manuscript with more than one layer of text. Repeatedly the memoirist abridges his own narrative to insert another’s biographical account of the same event, only to return again to his own admittedly imperfect recollections. The book is, therefore, a retelling of the author’s early life through the use of personal material superimposed over the public and private memories of others.

Through his novels, plays, and essays,...

[The entire page is 587 words long]

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