Book Review: Collected: Essays and Stories on Life, Death, and Donkeys

Title: Collected: Essays and Stories on Life, Death, and Donkeys

Author: Daphne Kapsali

Link: https://www.amazon.com/collected-essays-stories-death-donkeys-ebook/dp/B01MA49V6F

Summary:

If there’s a theme tying these pieces together, perhaps it’s identity, our constant quest for one that fits; that keeps fitting even as we change. We are scattered, like our stories, forever torn between people and places; we are all of us pulled this way and that by the different parts of our identities that don’t necessarily fit together, at first glance, but still come together to make a whole. Perhaps, for me, writing is the thread I use to keep it from splitting apart.

There are other themes, too: there is death and there is love (what else?), and the fear and the uncertainty that death and love both stoke and soothe. There is trust and jealousy; falling and finding your feet on ever-shifting ground. There are the negative feelings that we all succumb to, from time to time, the dark sides of our personalities, and the little sparks of joy that will eventually lead us back to where we want to be. And running through it all, that tentative thread of identity, the seams of who we are in this life, regardless of the where and the how; alone, for ourselves and for others.

Perhaps uncollected would be a fairer description of the little book you’re holding, but there is power in names, and I think the title I have chosen is more of a wish than a description; an invocation, almost a prayer. To be collected, and not scattered. To be collected, even when there are parts of you scattered all over the place. To be able to collect these parts, to bring them together in some loose, imperfect way, and make a thing that’s meaningful. A thing that fits.

My review:

5/5 Stars

I’m not a big memoir reader, but there’s something about Miss Kapsali’s writing style that has me coming back for more. I first read 100 Days, and I was entranced by the witty, humorous ways she writes. Collected was no different. This piece contains an array of wonderful stories and anecdotes of Miss Kapsali’s that had me both laughing and thinking. Would definitely recommend!