Scan barcode
dianametzger's review
4.0
Very moving. Well written and well paced. Felt slightly rushed at the end. A beautiful memoir about young grief and the attempt to find some way to recover from tragedy. This book spoke to me in a profound way.
kshea1's review
3.0
Always an extra touch to read about true events that happened around the your own neighborhood.
liralen's review
4.0
In 1982, a drunk driver crashed into Greenfield's family's car. Greenfield and her parents survived. Her younger brother and her best friend, both in the car as well, did not. What follows is something of a sensemaking operation for something that cannot make sense: what do you do when two of the people you love most are there, and then they're gone? What does moving forward mean when an event cuts your life into before and after and there's a chasm between those realities?
There's a clear choice to keep the focus far from the drunk driver: the reader learns virtually nothing about him, or any consequences he may have faced after the fact; he is beside the point. Greenfield sticks mostly to the year following the crash, and she and her family—and Kristin's family—struggled to reconcile the reality of then and now. Moments of grace, like Kristin's mother pushing through her grief to be there for Greenfield, and things that are hard to compute, like Greenfield's mother having to notify the adoption agency through which they'd adopted Adam that he had died, but never knowing if or when his birth mother would find out. Ten Minutes from Home was published more than a decade ago, and I'm a little surprised not to have stumbled across it before now.
There's a clear choice to keep the focus far from the drunk driver: the reader learns virtually nothing about him, or any consequences he may have faced after the fact; he is beside the point. Greenfield sticks mostly to the year following the crash, and she and her family—and Kristin's family—struggled to reconcile the reality of then and now. Moments of grace, like Kristin's mother pushing through her grief to be there for Greenfield, and things that are hard to compute, like Greenfield's mother having to notify the adoption agency through which they'd adopted Adam that he had died, but never knowing if or when his birth mother would find out. Ten Minutes from Home was published more than a decade ago, and I'm a little surprised not to have stumbled across it before now.
amandawoodruff's review
3.0
Great writing, interesting topic, but oh, so sad. I really enjoyed her honesty as the author described her grieving process; how she felt sad but couldn't let it show, how sometimes she wanted to let her anguish wash over her yet also wanted to forget it had ever happened (often at the same time), how it influenced her rebellious behavior as a teen. A really fascinating and genuine view. No happy ending but if you feel the need for a good cry this can get you there.
More...