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4.34 AVERAGE
4.34 AVERAGE
reflective
sad
medium-paced
dark
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
sad
medium-paced
When Natasha Trethewey was 19, her world shattered after her former stepfather killed her mother. Through this book, she delves into what built to this event and how it shaped her into the poet she would become. Trethewey goes back through her mother’s history and how her childhood years were as a mixed-race child in the South when her simple existence was enough to have the KKK at their door. Eventually, the story introduces her abusive stepfather who turns out to be the family’s biggest mistake. As Trethewey digs up memories she tried to bury long ago, the tragic tale of domestic violence, resistance, and ultimately grief begins.
I was captivated by this story from the start and stayed up reading it for several nights.
A Pulitzer-Prize winning poet, Trethewey's writing is thoughtful and moving. I felt her loss and grief lift off the pages. Trethewey lovingly portrays her mother as a strong and fierce woman whose life was full of hope and potential and when she was gone, I mourned her alongside Trethewey. I appreciated that the memoir did not try to claim that all the author’s memories are accurate. Often having a “perhaps” or “maybe” crafted into a sequence. Memoirs are not all factual. They are, but a person’s memories, prone to error. I also felt it played into the book’s overall theme of possibility. A lot of the book is Trethewey struggling with the aftermath of her mother’s death and going through all the “what if’s?” Were things fated to be this way? Or could she have traded places with her mother? As she goes through this she slowly tries to come to terms with her grief and find herself as an artist and as an adult. I would have liked to hear more about Natasha’s relationship to her brother and especially how that was affected after their mother’s death, but I loved the book regardless.
Thanks to NetGalley and Harper Collins Publishers/Ecco for an ARC in exchange for my honest review.
I was captivated by this story from the start and stayed up reading it for several nights.
A Pulitzer-Prize winning poet, Trethewey's writing is thoughtful and moving. I felt her loss and grief lift off the pages. Trethewey lovingly portrays her mother as a strong and fierce woman whose life was full of hope and potential and when she was gone, I mourned her alongside Trethewey. I appreciated that the memoir did not try to claim that all the author’s memories are accurate. Often having a “perhaps” or “maybe” crafted into a sequence. Memoirs are not all factual. They are, but a person’s memories, prone to error. I also felt it played into the book’s overall theme of possibility. A lot of the book is Trethewey struggling with the aftermath of her mother’s death and going through all the “what if’s?” Were things fated to be this way? Or could she have traded places with her mother? As she goes through this she slowly tries to come to terms with her grief and find herself as an artist and as an adult. I would have liked to hear more about Natasha’s relationship to her brother and especially how that was affected after their mother’s death, but I loved the book regardless.
Thanks to NetGalley and Harper Collins Publishers/Ecco for an ARC in exchange for my honest review.
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
tense
fast-paced
challenging
dark
emotional
sad
tense
fast-paced
A beautiful heart wrenching memoir that takes you through the beauty of an early childhood, the distress of living with an abusive stepfather, and the immeasurable loss of the authors Mother. A story played out over and over again in the world. Worthwhile to glimpse behind the curtain especially if you work with families. A tender and vulnerable view of the life of the author as a daughter in this environment, a perspective we should all see. To wonder about for those kids that are hiding behind perfect in public.
dark
sad
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-paced
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
tense
fast-paced
My heart breaks. I knew my heart would break but the writer is such a compelling storyteller that I found it hard to put down and read it all in one sitting. It is devastatingly beautiful.