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4.34 AVERAGE
4.34 AVERAGE
challenging
dark
emotional
sad
tense
medium-paced
Get your mind prepared for this. My heart and head hurts.
The book was very well written. I like how the author uses her words and would love to see a novel by her. This short book is about a traumatized childhood and her mother's death at the hand of her increasingly violent step-father, whom she could never recognize as her dad and rejected his proposal to adopt her. She sets a nice pace for how she relates the tension in her story, while questioning whether there might have been a different outcome had her own choices been different. I hope she can believe that it was not her fault.
Memorial Drive is an absolutely incredible memoir. We learn in the opening of the book that her mother was heinously murdered by her stepdad. What follows is an amazing personal path of reflection on her childhood, her relationship with her mother, her grief, and ultimate reckoning of the lead up and carrying out of the horrific crime. As Natasha is grappling with her past, she comes to some beautiful conclusions. I felt that as she shared her story, she was also sharing massive life lessons with the reader. This story is heart wrenching and tragic, yet I was left feeling stronger by osmosis. This quote left a particular mark:
“What matters is the transformative power of metaphor and the stories we tell ourselves about the arc and meaning of our lives.”
“What matters is the transformative power of metaphor and the stories we tell ourselves about the arc and meaning of our lives.”
Happy New Year. I am so excited for the all the reading to be had in the new year! While we have officially entered 2021, I still have a few book reviews left over from 2020 that I want to share my thoughts on. This book was just exceptional and still has me reeling!
CW: Domestic violence, maternal death
“What matters is the transformative power of metaphor and the stories we tell ourselves about the arc and meaning of our lives.”
Memorial Drive is a breathtaking memoir written by Natasha Trethewey who is known as the 2007 Pulitzer Prize winner in Poetry and was also the United States Poet Laureate in 2012 and 2013. In her memoir, Natasha confronts her past in retelling the events that lead up to the horrific and painful death of her mother at the hands of her former stepfather. Natasha unpacks how this trauma has shaped the arc of her life and into the artist that she is. She explores the ways in which the process of confronting her trauma after 30 years has formed a path towards healing.
Trethewey’s writing is breathtaking as she recounts the early years of her life within the arc of her mother’s death. She uses the power of vivid imagery and metaphor to convey the heartbreak and anger she had felt at the time that she has carried with her for over 30 years since the incident. I appreciate her vulnerability in allowing herself to convey the heavy grief and loss she has lived with for decades. I also greatly admire her strength in having the courage to share her story. This story is devastating and shook me to my core. She takes so much care and delicacy in sharing how the death of her mother has impacted her emotionally, but also shares the beauty in finding hope and healing in the process of understanding the trauma’s impact on her life.
“Even my mother’s death is redeemed in the story of my calling, made meaningful rather than merely senseless.”
CW: Domestic violence, maternal death
“What matters is the transformative power of metaphor and the stories we tell ourselves about the arc and meaning of our lives.”
Memorial Drive is a breathtaking memoir written by Natasha Trethewey who is known as the 2007 Pulitzer Prize winner in Poetry and was also the United States Poet Laureate in 2012 and 2013. In her memoir, Natasha confronts her past in retelling the events that lead up to the horrific and painful death of her mother at the hands of her former stepfather. Natasha unpacks how this trauma has shaped the arc of her life and into the artist that she is. She explores the ways in which the process of confronting her trauma after 30 years has formed a path towards healing.
Trethewey’s writing is breathtaking as she recounts the early years of her life within the arc of her mother’s death. She uses the power of vivid imagery and metaphor to convey the heartbreak and anger she had felt at the time that she has carried with her for over 30 years since the incident. I appreciate her vulnerability in allowing herself to convey the heavy grief and loss she has lived with for decades. I also greatly admire her strength in having the courage to share her story. This story is devastating and shook me to my core. She takes so much care and delicacy in sharing how the death of her mother has impacted her emotionally, but also shares the beauty in finding hope and healing in the process of understanding the trauma’s impact on her life.
“Even my mother’s death is redeemed in the story of my calling, made meaningful rather than merely senseless.”
challenging
dark
emotional
sad
tense
fast-paced
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Self harm, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Grief, Stalking, Death of parent, Murder
Wow! Incredibly sad story that had me in tears more than once but incredibly beautifully written.
reflective
sad
slow-paced
Content Warnings
Graphic: Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Physical abuse, Toxic relationship, Grief, Death of parent, Murder
Absolutely loved this and yet so mad that this happened to her and her mother. Having the actual recorded phone conversations really gave insight into the manipulative, abusive and controlling partner. Great read.
A very sad book, but also in a way a cleansing or renewal for the author. I think this story had to be told. It was written very well.
It isn't a long book, approx 240 pages. So it was a quick read. But I really enjoyed it.
It isn't a long book, approx 240 pages. So it was a quick read. But I really enjoyed it.
fast-paced