Critics' Opinion:
Readers' rating:
Published Aug 2010
256 pages
Genre: Biography/Memoir
Publication Information
A chance encounter between two writers develops into a wonderful friendship neither expected. Frank Conroy, author of Stop-Time, meets Tom Grimes, an applicant to the Iowa Writers' Workshop, which Conroy directs. First as teacher and student, and gradually as friends, their lives become entwined, and through both successes and disappointments, their bond deepens.
Exquisitely written, Mentor explores the writing life and the role of a very important teacher in a way that's honest and heartbreaking.
"Starred Review. Grimes delivers an eloquent portrait of the writer's life. Without wasting a word, [he] presents a view of how stories and writers, at least of a certain kind, are made." - Kirkus
"Starred Review. Employing a constant tension of ambivalence--shame and tenderness, pride and humility--Grimes proves in this stunningly forthright, forlorn memoir that his great subject is Conroy himself. " - Publishers Weekly
"Grimes' staggering self-critique, keen tribute to Conroy as writer and mentor, and hard-won insights ... are arresting and cautionary, inspiring and affecting." - Booklist
"Mentor is a touching memoir about one of those rare encounters in life, where the deep connection between two human beings transcend time and death." - Yiyun Li, author of The Vagrants and A Thousand Years of Good Prayers
"One of the truest accounts of a writer's life - of two writers' lives - I've yet seen. A poignant and beautiful book." - T. C. Boyle
"Mentor is a magnificent portrait of two fiction writers, rendered in fine, piercing and ruthless prose - and, above all, a love letter to a teacher." - Elizabeth McCracken
This information about Mentor was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
In addition to Mentor: A Memoir, Tom Grimes is the author of the novels A Stone of the Heart, Season's End, City of God, and Redemption Song, which was serialized in Narrative magazine. He edited The Workshop: Seven Decades from the Iowa Writers Workshop, the creative writing program from which he graduated. Grimes directs the MFA Program in Creative Writing at Texas State University.
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