Title: Life on a Road Less Traveled: Or, Memoirs from Behind the Scenes of History
Author: Loudell Insley
Publisher: iUniverse
ISBN: 9781462057047
Pages: 260
Genre: Biography, Autobiography
Reviewed by: Lily Amanda
Hollywood Book Reviews
Life on a Road Less Traveled: Or, Memoirs from Behind the Scenes of History is a sprawling book that takes an intimate and fascinating behind-the-scenes look into Author Loudell Insley handled immigration cases for the Senator in his Washington, DC office before rising to be Assistant Press Secretary. The book progresses and further thrusts readers into her involvement in Robert F. Kennedy’s presidential campaign as she travels with his team, his tragic assassination in 1968, and the aftermath of this.
The author writes about all of this with finesse and a threatening intelligence, as she resurrects historic personalities who palpitate between the lines as they live again before our eyes and mind. This original and taut memoir offers the author’s perspective on little-known details as it covers her experiences with the Kennedys in Office in the 60s. She writes about how she gained inspiration and knowledge from this family that shaped some of her life’s decisions and thought processes. The book does not tally in its progress and offers a lot of tenderness and reverence to those with whom the writer interacted.
You begin this high-spirited memoir thinking it will be about a particular subject, and then it turns into something else altogether; a book that is alternately ordinary and more extraordinary than any first impressions might allow culminating in a work that turns poignant and beautiful, thus rendering it individual and irreplaceable. The text undulates, shifting between the author’s own life and her observations of the prominent family. Its language is so crisp and candid from an essential American voice, and a vibrant one.
Each chapter begins with an illuminating quote from famous figures such as Mark Twain, serving as a hint to what the author writes about across the lines. Its title alone warrants a considerable worth of consideration as well. Altogether, Life on a Road Less Traveled: Or, Memoirs from Behind the Scenes of History unveils an indelible side of history which has never been told before and that fans of historical memoirs will find to be a memorable drive down history lane.