The Object Parade: Essays by Dinah Lenney

I really enjoyed The Object Parade: Essays by Dinah Lenney and will be recommending this title to teachers and students, especially those in our Senior Writers’ Seminar. In this collection of essays, Lenney seems to focus a variety of objects which were important to her, while really introducing us to the people and memories associated with these artifacts. Examples include her grandfather’s Steinway grand piano, a Christmas tree and holiday traditions, and that “little black dress” worn to many events tied to her acting career.  Many essays were previously published and several could serve as possible models for our “definition” essay assignment.

I was grateful for the opportunity to share in Lenney’s reflections, especially the cross-generational thoughts on children leaving home and on the relationships with in-laws and parents. She is a clever writer with whom I was not familiar, but who struck a chord, such as when talking about the young girl who “… spent hours on the window seat staring out between the branches of a weeping hemlock. From that spot, I watched the sky, read, wrote, drew, daydreamed….”  

The essays are interconnected, but can be read singly and do be sure to linger over the epilogue of The Object Parade for as Lenny says, “We attach meaning to things and things to meaning: endow them one way or another as if to prove to ourselves that we are who we are; this life really happened; we really have traveled this far in time and space.”