Tag Archives: Theo Pauline Nestor

Oct 18 2011
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event

Tim Elhajj to Guest Lecturer @ University of Washington

I’ve been asked to return to Theo Nestor’s memoir class at the UW! I’m so excited.

October 25, University of Washington

I think you have to be part of the class to attend, so I won’t list the building and time.

I studied with Theo a few years ago and have sat down to discuss my book and my journal on her blog.

The last time I visited Theo’s class, I came away so jazzed about memoir. That class was mostly students my age, who all have jobs or families, and everyone is showing up late at night to get their memoir written. It’s a very satisfying, creative space and I look forward to enjoying all that good writer energy.

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Oct 22 2008
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books

How to Sleep Alone in a King-Size Bed

The last good book I read was Theo Nestor’s divorce memoir, How to Sleep Alone in a King-Size Bed.

I can’t remember ever reading another memoir about divorce, but I enjoyed this one. The first chapter is essentially the Modern Love essay Theo wrote for the New York Times. The feedback she got from publishing her essay actually plays a small role in her transition from married to single mother. I wish the first chapter to my memoir would present itself to me in similar fashion, but no such luck.

Theo mentions that thing Dad would occasionally do when he and Mom were arguing. Dad would say, “If this were the Old Country, I could clap my hands three times and you would be divorced.” Sometimes Dad would even clap his hands once for effect. Theo says that’s a Sunni tradition, but I wonder if it isn’t pan-Arab. Dad was Catholic and he seemed pretty familiar with it.

Of course, Mom didn’t care about any clapping hands nonsense. She would just shrug her shoulders and say, “This ain’t the Old Country.”

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