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3.66 AVERAGE
3.66 AVERAGE
I suppose I didn't have enough background information about the author, [a:Ariel Levy|11286|Ariel Levy|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1534634042p2/11286.jpg], before reading this memoir because I didn't feel that it was relatable enough for me to get enough out of reading it. In this memoir, Levy divulges the details of the dissolution of her marriage and the horrible circumstances that led to her losing her son before he was even named. This book could've been horribly depressing and honestly at times, it was awfully close to being so. Levy spends a lot of time discussing how she copes with these "negative" events in her life. She goes into how she moves forward after what was essentially divorce, perhaps more accurately "conscious uncoupling" as Gwnyth Paltrow might say. My favorite quote from this memoir though was from an interview Levy conducted with [a:Maureen Dowd|73558|Maureen Dowd|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1206632305p2/73558.jpg]: “I asked [Dowd] if she'd ever wanted children. She told me, "Everybody doesn't get everything." It sounded depressing to me at the time, a statement of defeat. Now admitting it seems like the obvious and essential work of growing up. Everybody doesn't get everything: as natural and unavoidable as mortality.” I would recommend this memoir to someone who has/had a partner with alcoholism or someone suffering the loss of a child. While the whole memoir may not apply to these people, they will get something out of reading it.
Beautifully written remarkably depressing story of unexpected change.
Ariel Levy is a wonderful writer and there are many perfectly phrased moments in this searing tale of loss. She lived as a free young successful woman following her own rules and forging her own satisfying life, but then bad life stuff happens and she is left holding the pieces of broken promises that she didn't choose. Thrust into unknown territory, Levy traverses it with a dark hollowness as she nevertheless moves forward. Levy reads the audio book her voice adding to the narrative.
emotional
medium-paced
This memoir is about finding love and then realizing your spouse is an alcoholic at the same time you miscarry. Also the book just ends, I want to know what happens next!
Content Warnings
Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Miscarriage, Grief, Alcohol
Minor: Suicidal thoughts, Suicide
I did not like this memoir at all. The author was so entitled and selfish and seemed like a terrible person...
Wow. I had never read her writing before, and it is amazing. This book came to me as a Goodreads giveaway (!!! My first, thank you!!) and if you like memoirs, you will be impressed.
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-paced
any book i cancel plans for and finish in a day that makes me wanna yell, scream, think, or laugh this hard deserves 5 stars—and this did it all for me. we love a queer story, let alone a queer journalist memoir and on this side, we love memoirs. great life lessons, great feminist notations, tragedy, heartbreak, the whole nine yards. it was relatable and overall really awesome. i thoroughly enjoyed this.
Ariel Levy is a journalist who has traveled the world to report stories. In The Rules Do Not Apply, she tells her own story. In 2012, Levy thought she finally had it all. Her marriage had gone through some serious hardships including her own infidelity, but she and her wife were finally on the other side of it and they were expecting a baby. She took off on one last reporting trip to Mongolia and one month after her departure she had lost it all. Levy shares her upbringing because it informs the choices she makes as an adult. She gets honest about what its like being a woman from the time you leave college until your mid-thirties as you watch your friends pursue career, marriage, and family and as you try to figure out what's right for you. She is brutally honest about the choices she made, good and bad, and she tells her story masterfully. You will feel her grief along with every other human emotion as you read her story.
I love the writing and the author’s voice, but the book feels unfocused.