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4.34 AVERAGE
4.34 AVERAGE
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-paced
What a haunting, beautiful read. This book is an incredible and purposeful manifestation of the love shared between a daughter and mother.
challenging
medium-paced
Beautifully written. Incredibly poignant and sad. Heartbreaking. A must read.
emotional
reflective
sad
fast-paced
A gripping memoir about loss and finding yourself by looking back. I really am loving this super niche genre of poets writing memoirs. Trethewey paints such a vibrant picture of her mother’s life and untimely death through her own eyes. Trethewey threads together recorded conversations and police reports, with retellings from life in a very intricate manner. The prose is also delicious: “Those memories—some intrusive, some lovely—seem now to have a grander significance, like signposts on a path. It’s a path I can see now only because I have followed it backward, attempting to find a moment of revelation, evidence of something being set in motion”
“Though my mother and my grandmother met all of this with a similar stoicism, they responded differently. My mother was averse to guns, to confrontation; whereas my grandmother saw guns as a necessity, telling me countless times the way to confront a would-be intruder: “First fire a warning shot,” she said, “and if they keep coming, aim at the legs, shoot to wound.”
Those words marked my first awareness that any danger we might face was not limited to the world outside our close-knit community, the radius of those houses, but could come right to us, right up into the yard, perhaps even the front door.”
I really appreciate the setting of the historical context in which Trethewey was born, and how that shaped Trethewey’s mother’s own internal compass. Having her own perspective throughout the work, really helped the pacing, because I don’t think the book would be as entertaining had she just retold the circumstances by which her mother passed. Like many stories, hers was one that was on the precipice, but it was beautiful to see how she lives on through Trethewey and the work that she’s crafted and continues to.
“Though my mother and my grandmother met all of this with a similar stoicism, they responded differently. My mother was averse to guns, to confrontation; whereas my grandmother saw guns as a necessity, telling me countless times the way to confront a would-be intruder: “First fire a warning shot,” she said, “and if they keep coming, aim at the legs, shoot to wound.”
Those words marked my first awareness that any danger we might face was not limited to the world outside our close-knit community, the radius of those houses, but could come right to us, right up into the yard, perhaps even the front door.”
I really appreciate the setting of the historical context in which Trethewey was born, and how that shaped Trethewey’s mother’s own internal compass. Having her own perspective throughout the work, really helped the pacing, because I don’t think the book would be as entertaining had she just retold the circumstances by which her mother passed. Like many stories, hers was one that was on the precipice, but it was beautiful to see how she lives on through Trethewey and the work that she’s crafted and continues to.
emotional
reflective
sad
slow-paced
Well written and introspective, so unbelievable and sad how her mother died.
Having been a two-time poet laureate of the United States, author Natasha Tretheway, gives her account and experience prior to and after her mother's death.
It starts off with her as a young girl, bi-racial, in the south. desegregation slowly emerging.
I can only imagine being her at that time; trying to learn, being supported by both parents, but one constantly traveling for work. Like Author Tretheway, my grandmother was my foot-hold as well for many years.
After hitting middle school and parents separated/divorced, a new step-father is introduced, along with a step brother. This is a BIG turning point for her, but she persisted and prevailed while dealing with turmoil and threats.
Slowly, her imagination and thoughts come full circle to that fatal day when everything for her changed.
She gives us ALL her emotions, raw, uncut. Dealing with grief, loss, and finding herself. She remained focused and accomplished throughout. Her grandmother right by her side.
Heartfelt and emotional, it may bring you to tears as it did for me.
It starts off with her as a young girl, bi-racial, in the south. desegregation slowly emerging.
I can only imagine being her at that time; trying to learn, being supported by both parents, but one constantly traveling for work. Like Author Tretheway, my grandmother was my foot-hold as well for many years.
After hitting middle school and parents separated/divorced, a new step-father is introduced, along with a step brother. This is a BIG turning point for her, but she persisted and prevailed while dealing with turmoil and threats.
Slowly, her imagination and thoughts come full circle to that fatal day when everything for her changed.
She gives us ALL her emotions, raw, uncut. Dealing with grief, loss, and finding herself. She remained focused and accomplished throughout. Her grandmother right by her side.
Heartfelt and emotional, it may bring you to tears as it did for me.
dark
emotional
sad
fast-paced
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-paced