No Two Persons by Erica Bauermeister

NO TWO PERSONS by Erica Bauermeister is an intriguing read which begins with an introverted author, Alice Wein. Subsequent sections deal with other people who have some relationship to her writing, including a publicist and her assistants, the audio book narrator, and a variety of readers (a young, homeless girl, an angry artist, a daring free diver, etc.). Bauermeister has very cleverly, yet subtlety, linked the stories. Each person is impacted by Alice’s text in a unique way.  In fact, the title conveys the idea that we all come to books with different perspectives and therefore also have different take aways; it is from this quote: “No two persons ever read the same book, or saw the same picture” (Madame Swetchine, 1860). NO TWO PERSONS will have readers reflecting on their own lives and others. For example, Alice’s college professor gives the class a task to go to a coffee shop: “Close your eyes and listen. Write down what people around you are feeling. Not saying. Not thinking. Feeling. Ask yourself: How do you know that? Is it a dip in a sentence? A scrape of a chair?” One of my favorite parts is the description of creating an audiobook and the idea of using colored highlighters and multiple notes to be sure to convey an intended emotion, with “everything held in the voice.” I was surprised and happy to see that the author’s notes refer to Cassandra Campbell who narrates the audio book for this title as well as James Comey’s recently released Central Park West. Enjoy Bauermeister’s writing [“Picking up a book was a decision: I’m going to go away. The exciting possibility: I may not come back the same.”] plus her thoughts on the beauty of books: “They took you places you didn’t know you needed to go.”