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Stories We Tell Ourselves: "Dream Life" and "Seeing Things"
Stories We Tell Ourselves is a marvelous inquiry into what dreams can tell us about ourselves-in short, that some vast part of our experience, cut off from us and made unconscious, can be plumbed by anyone who is curious and persistent enough to pursue the enigmatic language of dreams.-Annie Rogers, author, The The Hidden Language of Trauma
- GenresEssays
164 pages, Paperback
First published March 15, 2013
About the author
Michelle Herman
19 books30 followersMichelle Herman‘s newest book, the novel Close-Up, is on shelves March 15, 2022. You can read her parenting advice weekly in the Sunday Care and Feeding column at Slate.
Born and raised in Brooklyn, Michelle has lived for many years in Columbus, Ohio, where she lives in a 120-year-old house with her husband, the painter Glen Holland.
Born and raised in Brooklyn, Michelle has lived for many years in Columbus, Ohio, where she lives in a 120-year-old house with her husband, the painter Glen Holland.
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
June 3, 2013
A short review for a short little book. This is a quietly beautiful and quirky little book. Divided into two distinct sections these are pretty much extended essays that read in a somewhat 'stream of consciousness' manner (Dreamlife in particular).
Herman has produced something completely different than the norm and managed to make it charming in the process.
Full review here
Herman has produced something completely different than the norm and managed to make it charming in the process.
Full review here
August 17, 2021
Exquisite, brilliant, and wise, as all of Michelle Herman's books are, Stories We Tell Ourselves got me to start remembering my dreams again after years of waking with no memory at all of what had transpired during the night. Michelle Herman writes like no one else writing today, and I am so grateful for her books.
March 2, 2015
I was waiting until I finished reading this to review it, but since I've been only halfway through for a couple of months, I thought I might as well face the fact that I may never finish it. I've had this problem with a couple of this author's books. I don't want to give a bad impression because I really do like the way Herman writes; it's just that her writing is exhausting to read. She writes long, convoluted sentences with lots of ellipses and parentheses--much the way a person thinks--and sometimes I find it difficult to follow all the ins and outs and ups and downs of her thought process. Having said that, I must hasten to add that I love what she thinks: she has wonderful insights and makes elegant connections between her different thoughts. She also obviously does a lot of research, making for a rich and layered reading experience.
The bottom line is: I do recommend this book as an exhaustive and enlightening treatise on the "stories we tell ourselves." Just don't expect it to be an easy read!
The bottom line is: I do recommend this book as an exhaustive and enlightening treatise on the "stories we tell ourselves." Just don't expect it to be an easy read!
February 8, 2013
Life is messy. But telling stories about life makes messy bearable, and sometimes, livable. And in Stories We Tell Ourselves, Michelle Herman has penned two essays that can serve that purpose.
Somewhat light-hearted while at the same time thought-provoking and a little bit of eccentric, Herman has this endearing and charming way of presenting two subjects – the analysis of dreams and thoughts and the changing of life not as boring or stressful or anxious as one would expect when they see Jung and Freud in the same book.
Colorful, descriptive and full of personal insights, Stories We Tell Ourselves will be a nice collection for any reader's shelf (Kindle or real book shelf)
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews