Life of a Star

Life of a Star presents itself as a series of short ramblings of the narrator, who is also the main character. The ramblings could even be called diary entries as they are the thoughts and desires of the narrator. The main character is a woman who imagines herself to be an actress, something that is evident throughout the book.

Life of a Star presents itself as a series of short ramblings of the narrator, who is also the main character. The ramblings could even be called diary entries as they are the thoughts and desires of the narrator. The main character is a woman who imagines herself to be an actress, something that is evident throughout the book.

Through her musings, the reader is able to see pieces of her childhood, her desire for her absent lover, and her imaginary trips overseas, as well as gardens and art galleries she wanders through. She searches both in the real and the imaginary for a love she never had at any point in her life. Her mother seems to prefer another child to her and her lover doesn’t return the love she has for him.

There are times when the narrator stops in the middle of one sentence to start another. However, this wasn’t really distracting. In fact, it made the book seem even more like the entries in a diary.

Early in the book, a number of entries were poetic in their descriptions of things. For example,

Full-body pupil of the eye. The keyhole image of a room unlit. And all the other darkest, sunken, or as yet unopened spaces in which one might find herself and all her other selves concealed. This is the blackness in which I am often depressed when I am headed toward that fountain.

Poetic descriptions like this helped to make Life of a Star an enjoyable, quick read.