Ongoingness

Ongoingness: The End of a Diary

First edition
Author	Sarah Manguso
Country	United States
Language	English
Subject	Reflection on journaling
Genre	Memoir
Published	2015
Publisher	Graywolf Press
Publication date	March 3, 2015
Pages	144
ISBN	978-1-55597-703-0

Ongoingness: The End of a Diary is a 2015 book by Sarah Manguso. Manguso kept a journal for 25 years, which culminated in an 800,000 word long document. In Ongoingness, she explores and reflects upon her reasons and motivations for journaling – her obsessive need to document every incident in her life because she was afraid she would forget the details later, and using journaling as a coping mechanism for dealing with low-level anxiety. She also explores her change in writing style with time – her earlier entries were detailed; now they are brief; while she used to write in the past tense earlier, she now uses the present tense.

References[]

• "Ongoingness: The End of a Diary by Sarah Manguso". Publishers Weekly. Retrieved March 1, 2015.
• "Ongoingness: The End of a Diary by Sarah Manguso". Kirkus Reviews. November 4, 2014. Retrieved March 1, 2015.
• "Mostly True". New York Times. New York City. February 13, 2015. Retrieved March 1, 2015.
• Beck, Julie (February 27, 2015). "When Diary-Keeping Gets in the Way of Living". The Atlantic. Washington, D.C. Retrieved March 1, 2015.