Not Quite What I Was Planning Six-Word Memoirs by Writers Famous and Obs cure by Larry Smith

Deceptively simple and surprisingly addictive, Not Quite What I Was Planning is a thousand glimpses of humanity--six words at a time.

One Life. Six Words. What's Yours?

When Hemingway famously wrote, "For Sale: baby shoes, never worn," he proved that an entire story can be told using a half dozen words. When the online storytelling magazine SMITH asked readers to submit six-word memoirs, they proved a whole, real life can be told this way too. The results are fascinating, hilarious, shocking, and moving.

From small sagas of bittersweet romance ("Found true love, married someone else") to proud achievements and stinging regrets ("After Harvard, had baby with crackhead"), these terse true tales relate the diversity of human experience in tasty bite-sized pieces. From authors Jonathan Lethem and Richard Ford to comedians Stephen Colbert and Amy Sedaris, to ordinary folks around the world, everyone has a six-word story to tell.

Review

"Perfect for the American attention span...Will thrill minimalists and inspire maximalists." -- Vanity Fair

"Irresistibly clever." -- Chicago Tribune

"The brilliance is in the brevity." -- New York Post

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ HarperCollins; Illustrated edition (5 Feb. 2008)

Language ‏ : ‎ English

Paperback ‏ : ‎ 240 pages

ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0061374059

ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0061374050

Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 12.7 x 1.52 x 18.08 cm