Katharine Weber is the author of the novels True Confections, Triangle, The Little Women, The Music Lesson, and Objects in Mirror Are Closer Than They Appear. She lives in Connecticut with her husband, the cultural historian Nicholas Fox Weber.
“The Memory of All That is a rigorous, heartfelt, often shattering
history of Weber’s family and the people close to them. Making
sense of family is always difficult but, for Weber, the difficulty
is exacerbated because so many relatives are famous and widely
written about, their stories of extramarital affairs, intimate
betrayals, and falsehoods common knowledge…Weber takes advantage of
her insider position to sort out lies and myths, and give readers
the straight scoop on her celebrated kin. In doing so, and in using
her novelist’s skills in the development of character, she also
lets us see what it is really like to inherit the legacy of so many
stars behaving with such astounding infidelity to the ideas of
truth, marriage, and family.”
—Floyd Skloot, The Boston Globe
“Highly appealing….a book infused with the doubt that we all bring
to the contemplation of those mysterious beings who birthed us,
along with our certainty that few subjects are more
fascinating….It’s when Ms. Weber remembers Papa that her
considerable skills as a writer are most seductively on display.
And it’s not just because the exasperating Kaufman is such a good
subject. It’s that Ms. Weber is able to arrange words musically, so
that they capture the elusive, unfinished melodies that haunt our
memories of childhood. As her grandmother’s lover might have put
it, she’s got rhythm.”
—The New York Times
“The Memory of All That is less a family memoir than a family
biography. Which is good because Weber’s kin are more than
fascinating enough to stand on their own without embellishments of
personal memory. (A-) ”
—Entertainment Weekly
“Gracefully written, poignant and droll, The Memory of All That is
a gifted author’s brave look back at her eccentric, lively forbears
— their dealings, foibles and affairs.”
—Dallas Morning News
“Weber is an accomplished novelist; she knows well how to
manipulate fictional form, as any reading of her 2006
novel Triangle will readily illustrate….In The
Memory of All That, Weber’s eye for detail and for the right phrase
is undiminished. No, no, they can’t take that away.”
—Chicago Sun-Times
"Old scandals. What fun...The core of her tale is that of elegant
sin and betrayal."
—Daily News
"Weber is an elegant writer, and she can be witheringly funny."
—Palm Beach Post
"To be a writer born into an illustrious and complex family is both
a burden and a gift. In THE MEMORY OF ALL THAT, Katharine
Weber trains her novelist's eye and penetrating intelligence upon
what may be her greatest subject: her own family's history as it
stretches back, generation after fascinating generation. Her
achievement here is a literary one, to be sure--but even more than
the beautiful, elegant story contained in these pages, I am in awe
of the strength, tenacity and courage it took to rise up out of
this fabled cast of characters and write one of the most powerful
memoirs about inheritance I have ever read."
—Dani Shapiro, author of Devotion
“The Memory of All That is an engaging family memoir that centers
on the ardent extra-marital liaison between the author's maternal
grandmother, composer Kay Swift, and her eminent colleague George
Gershwin....An entertaining, often poignant book.”
—Francine du Plessix Gray, author of Them
"A deeply moving book that is resonant and richly rewarding.
Katharine Weber’s loving and insightful look at her marquee worthy
family fundamentally reminds us of our own in its strangeness and
complexity. The deeply bonded relationship between her
grandmother Kay Swift and lover George Gershwin is finally fully
revealed with accuracy and aching poignancy. No one has ever
properly told their story, and the combination of Weber’s inside
family knowledge, assiduous research, and brilliant writing make
this an unforgettable and essential read."
—Michael Feinstein
“I honestly don't believe I've ever read a memoir so filled with
anything like Weber’s own, fierce, detached grace. Her ability to
evoke the most horrifying events while reducing the reader to
helpless laughter is uncanny….An extraordinary
achievement.”
—Robb Forman Dew
“Novelist Weber mines her rich family history, hitting the
mother lode of pedigreed romances and remembrances….Grandmother Kay
Swift, the first female Broadway composer and George Gershwin’s
longtime lover; grandpa James Paul Warburg, FDR’s economic adviser,
and daddy Sidney Kaufman, serial womanizer, unconventional
filmmaker, and producer of the first feature film that literally
smelled, thanks to a process called Aromarama, literally walk off
the pages of this captivating multigenerational saga.”
—Booklist
“A wry portrait of a powerful, talented, but troubled family.”
—Publishers Weekly
“Novelist Weber tells the story of her colorful family and
the scandalous—but monumentally transformative—love affair between
her grandmother, Kay Swift and George Gershwin….Rich details of a
dazzling but painful family past fraught with betrayals,
infidelities and other assorted dysfunctions…. illuminating.”
—Kirkus Reviews
"A thoroughly engaging family memoir."
—Library Journal
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