I am reading this book and finding it intriguing and inspirational. I, too, like Julavits started keeping a diary when I was young - about 15. And have kept writing since. My diaries (or journals as I call them now) live in a wicker trunk in my loft. Once in a while I, too, read them, looking for the young woman I used to be, looking for ideas, a peculiar image, a stunning turn-of-phrase, a surprise. Often I don't find them, but, now and then, I do. I surprise myself. Did I really write that? I wonder aloud. Perhaps Julavits's book will push me towards making a book too, towards creating passages with depth and insight. One can always hope.

" “The Folded Clock’’ tells us that Julavits likes “The Bachelor,’’ ocean swimming, stories and gossip, antique shops and eBay, objects, and her husband, with whom she also likes to pick fights. She spends time in Germany (at an academy where her husband has a fellowship and she is resentful), Italy (at an arts colony where she has a fellowship and is depressed), New York (where she teaches at Columbia and goes to dinner parties), and Maine (where she summers and goes to more dinner parties)."

From a review in The Boston Globe.