She's a Natural

Did you listen to This American Life this week? (It's airing today. Go to PublicRadioFan.org to stream). The theme was parenting, and one of the essays was sent in by an Midwestern women with a dead marriage and three teenage girls. It absolutely blew me away. This woman's writing was so honest, so unafraid, that it was read on air by a TAL producer to protect the family's identity. And what was so impressive was less the actual themes - ambiguous parenting skills, sneaky teenage sex, beer-soaked financial frustrations - than the writing itself.

Though I don't know for sure, I'm almost certain the author is not a professional writer. We're told nothing about her, but I just don't believe that a writer, aspiring or otherwise, would ever let something of theirs be read on TAL anonymously. We're too vain for that.

And this woman is amazing. Her writing is instinctively clean and crisp and completely unsentimental. I watch myself and other MFA students struggle tooth and nail - and almost always fail - to achieve the tone she uses so naturally. Maybe she's one of those geniuses, closets filled with brilliant childhood diaries. Maybe it's her Midwestern humility and lack of flourish. But really, you should listen to it. And feel a little ping inside because for some people, it really is that easy.