I recently read through Pamela Jane’s An Incredible Talent for Existing. Not my type of book, but something grabbed me when she approached me for a review, and then that led to another thing, etc. Life is like that, and ironically so is this book. (That initial thing was that my son used to have one of her children’s books and I recalled the cover when I looked her up.)

Much of the book is interlaced with what inspires and motivates her. Frank Baum’s Oz seems to weave through most of Jane’s life as she describes her life with an effortless narration that sounds so much like my own inner voice that I had to laugh at some of her tongue in cheek gaffes that were so relatable and also so vivid that I might have actually been there. I suspect that most readers will feel the same and that it’s a byproduct of talented writing.

The writing is excellent in form and function and I’d recommend it especially for people who like memoirs or autobiographies as it reads as something of an autobiography of an everyman (or everywoman) from the 1960s and beyond.

I write this just coming off a meeting with a half dozen fiction writers who ran a panel discussion on inspiration. That might be why Jane’s affection for Oz seemed so prominent to me; we all have things that inspire us, lead us, and guide us to a better world (one of our own making, for fiction authors). Pamela Jane’s book really demonstrates what inspiration and hope in a better tomorrow looks like as lived out in her own life—all the blemishes, blunders, and self doubt included.
(I received a free copy in exchange for an honest review)

You can check it out by clicking here.