January 29th, 2010 
Long before Robyn Okrant began Living Oprah, author Cathy Alter used the wisdom of the almighty O – and 13 other women’s glossies – to fix her shipwrecked life. At age 37, Cathy was working a toxic job, eating her lunch out of vending machines, severely in debt and partying recklessly, all while cavorting with the most inappropriate of men. Without realizing her life had hit bottom Cathy found herself between a much-needed call of intervention from a friend and the magazine section of a Barnes & Noble. She had two choices – continue her death spiral or find a way to turn the ship of her life around.
And so begins Up for Renewal: What Magazines Taught Me About Love, Sex, and Starting Over
What I loved so much about this memoir was the way Cathy engaged her readers. Her first person narrative is fun, quirky and intellectually witty with just the right fusion of contemporary pop culture references. The opening chapters of the book are very revealing, leaving no doubt about just how bad her choices in lifestyle habits and men was. As she progresses through her journey of self-discovery and transformation Cathy takes herself and us as the reader out of her comfort zones. Every success is shared by an equal number of failures along with the median goals met in between. Even in reading the parts about her experiments gone wrong, there is never a sense of failure – just fearless learning and growth.
At a glance Up For Renewal could be easily written off as the women’s magazines that comprise the guidelines for Cathy’s transformation routine. But like the old adage goes, “Never judge a book by its cover.” This is not some fawning chicklit novella where the haphazard heroine bumbles from one mess to another and in between musical cut scenes discovers Cosmo, drops a dress size, gets a new wardrobe with matching haircut and then sails off into the sunset with that cute guy next door she’s always admired but was too shy to talk to. Up For Renewal is a serious work – it’s 100% real and a very relatable story. Like a tapestry Cathy weaves stories from her childhood and adult life together to show just how she ended up where did and how in making changes she was able to improve her life and love herself more completely. There is no secret agenda here or hidden sales pitch for women’s glossies. They are truly just a means to an end as it’s Cathy’s own personal revelations that drive the narrative.
In reading this memoir I gained a new level of insight into the world of women’s magazines and also connected deeply with Cathy’s journey to be a better self. We have all been at these places in our lives where who we’ve become and what we are doing is exactly what’s making us unhappy and not what we want for ourselves. It takes a strong person to stop and acknowledge their current state of being, overcome the shame and guilt they feel and actively take steps to change what they see. Truly it is not the vehicle one uses to get to the end of the journey but how one steers that vehicle. Cathy Alter’s Up For Renewal shows us how she guided her own journey of transformation and along the way inspires the reader to do the same in their own lives.
To learn more about Cathy Alter and her memoir Up For Renewal check out my 2 part, in-depth interview with her.
Also, be sure to pick up Washingtonian magazine’s February issue to see an article Cathy Alter wrote about Miss A, Andrea Rodgers. Here is Andrea’s take on the article.
