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Leslie Cockburn

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Think back to your first day of school, your first communion, your first prom, the day you were a bridesmaid for your best friend, your beloved aunt's funeral. Can you remember what you wore on those occasions? I bet you can.

Clothes, like music, hold our memories. Just as an old sweet song can bring an event from the past to mind, clothes can provide the same sort of flashback.

For Ilene Beckerman, clothes are the password to her past. And her book, Love, Loss and What I Wore is her memoir. It's anecdotal, simply illustrated, a small book, a quick read, and by the time you've finished it, you'll know an awful lot about the writer's life. And all from pithy vignettes telling us how she felt when she wore her little black dress, her Diane von Furstenburg wrap dress, her Brownie uniform.

When I first read this book several years ago, I was impressed. Oh, heck, I loved it. It seemed a perfect way to mark the significant moments in a life. Today it came to mind because I was trying to explain why my mom had treasured her "dance hat," kept it wrapped in tissue in a hat box up in her closet for many years after she and dad no longer went dancing.

I don't think mom was unusual. I think that many women can recall precisely what they wore on significant moments in their lives, where they were, what happened, and how the clothes made them feel. Mom loved dad, dancing, and that good-memory hat. Dad love mom, but he couldn't have cared less about the hat.

Love, Loss and What I Wore was written by Beckerman for her children, to let them know who she really was; she had no intention of publishing it. But when she did, this surprisingly powerful autobiography became a runaway bestseller. Now it's formed the basis for an Off Broadway hit, written by Nora and Delia Ephron, and acted by Tyne Daley, Rosie O'Donnell, Samantha Bee, Katie Finneran and Natasha Lyonne. A portion of the show's ticket sales go to benefit Dress for Success.

Beckerman was nearly 60 when she began her writing career, but she's caught up nicely now, thank you very much. She's been published by the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, Ladies' Home Journal. She's has adjudicated People Magazine's Best and Worst Dressed, had her books translated into four languages, and given her signature talks to large audiences.

The bad news is I couldn't find Love, Loss and What I Wore on Fredericton Public Library shelves. But we do have two copies in French in the system, for a lucky few. The rest of us will have to request the English edition through Interlibrary Loans. It's not hard to do. Just stop by or call the reference desk at 460-2812 and they'll bring the book in for you.

Leslie Cockburn is the young adult and adult services co-ordinator at the Fredericton Public Library, the resource library for the York-Sunbury region. Her column appears on the Book Page every Saturday. She can be reached at leslie.cockburn@gnb.ca.