Ecco - 2021
I love a good memoir and and this one was recommended by Ti@BookChatter. It also made the cut as one of our former President Obama's favorite books in 2020.
In 1985 when the author was a college student her mother Gwen was murdered by her former stepfather. For years she buried her memories of her beautiful mother and their life together. Now 30+ later she tells her story, her mother's story and the story of an unpredictable, possessive and hot headed former Vietnam Vet who killed her mother in her own home.
This was much more than an ordinary memoir, the author is a former US poet laureate and her talent shows through the beautiful passages throughout this book. A richly observed story of race, love, obsession and family. Highly Recommended.
Quotes
- “Mommy," you say quietly, so as not to be overheard. "Do you know how, when you love someone and you know they are hurting, it hurts you, too?”
- “What matters is the transformative power of metaphor and the stories we tell ourselves about the arc and meaning of our lives.”
Rating - 5/5 stars (purchased)
St. Martin's Press - 2021
Burnt Harbor, Maine is the beautiful small town setting for this multigenerational saga. The novel takes place in the years (1955-1968). Life in some respects was much simpler back then but families still faced some of the same life changing issues as we experience today such as caring for elderly loved ones. Life was tumultuous for other reasons as well: war (Vietnam), race relations as well as the assassination of President Kennedy. his brother Bobby as well as Dr. Martin Luther King.
The story begins with Margreete, an elderly woman with dementia who lives alone and starts a fire in her home. Her daughter Liddie, her husband Harry and their two children Bernie and Eva upend their lives in Chicago and move to Maine to live with Margreete as she is unwilling to leave her home or consider other options posed to her. Over the course of the novel a third, unplanned child is born as well and, as life marches on the reader experiences both big and small moments in the lives of this family.
Margreete was an interesting character, married and widowed 3x, with 3 children, it was sad to see her once full life slip away by the loss of her memory. There are a lot of themes covered in this story: marriage, family, parenting, fidelity, homosexuality and more. I found the story to be quiet in nature yet rich in detail. This novel took my longer than I expected to read but, I did enjoy it. I probably appreciated the story more having grown up during this time period when my own grandfather also lived in the same house with us. It was a time when family often care for family under the same roof. Readers who enjoy multigenerational, small town stories might want to add this one to their list.
Thanks to
JoAnn@ Gulfside Musing for reminding me I had this one on my Kindle (sent to me by publisher and NetGalley).
Rating - 4/5 stars
You sound like me with Kindle and audiobook purchases - out of sight out of mind once I click BUY. LOL
ReplyDeleteBoth of these sound like amazing reads!
ReplyDeleteYes, I liked them both but, I admit I am a sucker for a well-written memoir.
DeleteYou sure found two really good ones.
ReplyDeleteYes, both quite different. The NF was a complete page turner.
DeleteI am not a huge fan of memoir but Memorial Drive was excellent.
ReplyDeleteDo I need to get my courage up to read Memorial Drive? The story of the father's violence sounds chilling. But her achievements in poetry have me curious.
ReplyDeleteThe memoir sounds particularly good even if it could be a tough read. I don't read many memoirs, but if you and Ti both loved this one, that's a great selling point for me.
ReplyDeleteI would like to read both of these, but like Susan, I think I need to be brave to read Memorial Drive.
ReplyDeleteSo glad you enjoyed Margreete's Harbor, too. Memorial Drive sounds like a difficult, but worthwhile read.
ReplyDeleteMargreete, an elderly woman with dementia who lives alone and sets fire to her home, is the protagonist of the story. Liddie, her daughter,
ReplyDeleteLinedIn Bellen