My Place in the Spiral by Rebecca Beardsall

Book Review by Colleen Lutz Clemens

With My Place in the Spiral, Rebecca Beardsall invites the reader along on her journey to understand the past—and thereby the present—through uncovering the story of her Nana Ruth. Proving that stories can stem from anywhere, Beardsall begins her hybrid text with the story of being compared to her maternal grandmother Nana Ruth by her Aunt Pat on a Facebook photo. This comment reminds Beardsall of her Nana Ruth who was only a photograph hung next to a clock taken from her elementary school teaching days. Beardsall’s vulnerability and honesty shine from the pages, and her smarts undergird the memoir with theory about time, literature, gender, nationality, and more. Her creativity brings together photos, footnotes, endnotes, and captions as story in her circular, non-linear search for understanding.

In the Introduction, Beardsall writes “I am here. I once was here. I will return here. The here always remains.” This sentence efficiently summarizes her storytelling, bouncing from the present in trying to uncover the past, the past of both Ruth (and later her great-grandmother Mary) in Pennsylvania and of Rebecca in New Zealand/Aotearoa, the return to Pennsylvania to visit the places of Ruth’s life, and the always remaining here as the convergence of all those lives and stories into the text.  

Beardsall writes “The quest and the journey connecting me to Ruth, and later Mary, transported me to places and emotions I never expected. My life is a continuation of theirs.” Here Beardsall situates herself in the spiral of time from which the memoir takes its title. This book takes the reader along into the spiral with the author through the careful use of photos, research, and storytelling. Serendipitous moments make the reader gasp with delight, and the uncovering of ephemera from childhood that most people never carry into adulthood only add to the rich story that unfolds in this hybrid nonfiction book. Anyone who has ever wanted to know more about a presence in their lives will enjoy this creatively told story.  

Colleen Lutz Clemens is a professor of English at Kutztown University where she also directs the Women’s, Gender, and Sexualities program. She is the mother of one and the teacher of many. She is the Book Review Editor for Minerva Rising. Her musings and publications are housed at her blog.