By Heart: Elizabeth Smart a Life

Do you like fast fascinating reads?, then you will like By Heart. I read it so fast and normally i'm a slow reader. A great documentary well written!

I suppose this is mainly of interest to those who have read "By Grand Central Station I Sat Down and Wept" which is autobiographical but incoherent. This biography of Elizabeth Smart explains what really happened. There is lot more to it than that. The insights into Canadian-British-American relationships are illuminating. The British literary scene comes across as the least inhibited and most tolerant of the three. The book has those snide cutting anti-Canadian jibes that Canadian writers do so well. The account of Soho in the fifties is fascinating and the account of Edmonton in the seventies is devastating. Elizabeth Smart and George Barker and his wives went on to have close and warm relationships into their old age. In a way it's a happy ending to "By Grand Central Station" although there were further tragedies. The paracetemol that killed her daughter Rose (it produces hepatic necrosis when combined with alcohol) is known as acetominophen (Tylenol) in America. Robert Fraser has written a biography of George Barker.