Not your usual biography, this book began its life when
friends of author Alexander Masters found 148 diaries in a dumpster in
England. They were written by the same
person over several decades, starting as a young teen. When Masters finds himself in possession of
the diaries, he doesn’t systematically look through them, but picks them out almost
at random, finding different details to pinpoint character traits of the writer. He relishes the idea that he can look
into the world of a real person, a non-famous person who isn’t self-conscious
about sharing his/her thoughts.
For a long time, Masters doesn’t know the name or gender of
the writer, and refers to the writer as “I.” He finally organizes the diaries into chronological order and estimates
that the diarist wrote about 40 million words, the 148 diaries being only about
1/8 of all the diaries written by this person. Eventually, Masters realizes that the diarist is likely still alive and
attempts to locate him/her.
A Life Discarded
is partly mystery and partly revelation about the diarist. I found it satisfying to get to know Masters
and some of his friends along the way.
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