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In this collection of impeccably written essays, Schwartz tells us early on that she never thought of her life as a “continuous line” but rather a series of intertwined interrupted experiences. Hers is a life that has been bumped, tumbled, and smoothed by an endless stream of travel, fascinating people, and books: writing them, pondering them, translating them. Her essays range from musings about the art of translation, the tribulations of major surgery dissected with biting wit, a quest for recovery from the 9 /11 attacks at a music school, and hours spent with friends arguing, drinking and smoking in a neighborhood bar. Her personal narratives range from humorous childhood (an 8-year-old writer) and troubled revelations to learning to be an adult facing the difficulties of simultaneously writing and raising children. We see her as a daughter struggling to understand her parents through adolescent eyes, a mother startled at the all-consuming demands of motherhood and writing, and as an older adult grappling with mortality. Throughout, she is painfully honest, funny, and unafraid of difficult truths. Relentlessly candid, subjecting herself to her own sharp scrutiny, Schwartz is willing to confront the confusions of maturing in a changing world.

Award–winning novelist, poet, and essayist, Lynne Sharon Schwartz returns with what is perhaps her most personal book yet. These memoirs, gathered under the title of'Intimate Glimpses,'are exactly that. Intimate recollections of her life, beginning with her serious heart–valve surgery and ranging back in time, from going to movies as a child, to her relationship with her complicated and challenging parents, her own difficulties with intimacy and anger, thoughts about long friendships, and the pure delight of grandchildren. It will surprise none of her readers that after a lifetime of playing the piano and moving from place to place for her entire adulthood, she finds a different, richer sort of fulfillment as a middle–aged woman taking African drum lessons in Manhattan. every piece in this wonderful collection is an adventure.In this her twenty–fourth book, Schwartz remains, as was said of her by Frederick Busch,'precise and unflinching.'she is a writer of elegant style and captivating honesty, about herself, those around her, and the world at large. These reflections, certain to move and disturb, enlighten and entertain, affirm that Lynne Sharon Schwartz is one of the finest writers of her generation.

A Los Angeles Times Book Review Best Book of 1996'Without books how could I have become myself?'In this wonderfully written meditation, Lynne Sharon Schwartz offers deeply felt insight into why we read and how what we read shapes our lives. An enchanting celebration of the printed word.