Solid Ivory: Memoirs

James Ivory

Edited by Peter Cameron

Pandemic Reading, Part One – One of my all-time favorite filmmakers. About 90 years of life, working and playing with some of the era’s most fascinating people from around the world. A memoir that’s been widely reviewed and uniformly praised. So why was reading this pastiche of memories and portraits slow-going for me? I blame the mind-numbing lethargy of this ongoing pandemic. Ivory, obviously, knows how to tell a story. As director and/or writer of “A Room with a View,” “Maurice,” “Howard’s End,” “The Remains of the Day,” and “Call Me by Your Name,” the man knows how to craft a tale. So – that magic that is conjured when a story on paper “clicks” with a reader; will it strike for me if I re-read this book two months or two years from now? I’ve noted in earlier ChicagoWriter posts my experience with Joseph Conrad’s “Heart of Darkness.” I struggled the first two times I read “Heart of Darkness” as a school assignment. By the third time, I realized I was reading a masterpiece. By the fourth time, I realized I was reading about Life.