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4.34 AVERAGE
4.34 AVERAGE
Thank you to the publisher for sending me an advanced copy of this gorgeously honest and poignant book. I also want to thank the author for her bravery in sharing her memories, love and grief for mother. This is a powerful book that I highly recommend.
reflective
sad
Beautiful and heartrenching memoir. Lots of references to greek tragedies which increase the sense of dread I had as Trethewey's tale unfolds since we know that this story is a tragedy as well.
Wow. I can't even imagine how painful it must have been for the author to research and write this memoir, but I hope she was able to find joy in revisiting her happier memories with her mother. A powerful, compact read.
This is a really beautiful memoir by former Poet Laureate Natasha Trethewey.
Probably the one word that could distill this book?
Much of Trethewey's book focuses on her early childhood and teenage years, much of which was suppressed after the traumatic murder of her mother. The book is a process of returning to the site of trauma in hopes of a resolution, or a sense of closure.
As I expected, Trethewey's prose is absolutely beautiful; as a poet, she has a great eye for metaphor and description. The book itself can be circular, returning to specific memories, ideas, photographs, etc., but that's definitely an artistic choice that replicates the ways that trauma returns to you (and you return to trauma), forcing you to make meaning from chaos.
Probably the one word that could distill this book?
Memory.
Much of Trethewey's book focuses on her early childhood and teenage years, much of which was suppressed after the traumatic murder of her mother. The book is a process of returning to the site of trauma in hopes of a resolution, or a sense of closure.
Of course, we're made up of what we've forgotten, too, of what we've tried to bury or suppress. Some forgetting is necessary and the mind works to shield us from things that are too painful, even so, some aspect of trauma lives on in the body, from which it can emerge unexpectedly.
As I expected, Trethewey's prose is absolutely beautiful; as a poet, she has a great eye for metaphor and description. The book itself can be circular, returning to specific memories, ideas, photographs, etc., but that's definitely an artistic choice that replicates the ways that trauma returns to you (and you return to trauma), forcing you to make meaning from chaos.
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Toxic relationship, Violence
In this chilling but beautifully written memoir, US Poet Laureate and Pulitzer Prize winning Natasha Trethewey uses her exquisite poetic crafting to revisit and confront the defining traumatic moment of her life: the murder of her mother by her stepfather.
It is a devastating book, written in a lyrical voice, full of grief, regret and guilt over the awful burst of violence that ruptured her life. The memoir acts as a form of reckoning for the writer, an intimate exploration of her girlhood as a daughter of ‘miscegenation’ and a moving, intimate account of the course of her mother’s life, right up until its tragic end. With penetrating insight and a wistful, elegiac voice, Trethewey masterfully finds words to explore the unspeakable.
There is a clear sense of her desperation throughout: she is desperate to understand what happened, why it happened and how it was allowed to happen. But her investigation is rarely angry, does not look to point blame on inactive authorities or locate the crime in any racial contexts, it is instead something much more intimate and restrained, a rumination on grief and how it has shaped her both as a writer and as a woman. The inclusion of evidence- transcribed phone conversations, her mother’s own words and police reports- adds a heart-wrenching impact to Trethewey’s own reflections.
I cannot imagine what Trethewey had to go through to write this book. As with any other memoir about trauma and loss, I am in awe at the writer’s ability to make sense of something so senseless.
It is a devastating book, written in a lyrical voice, full of grief, regret and guilt over the awful burst of violence that ruptured her life. The memoir acts as a form of reckoning for the writer, an intimate exploration of her girlhood as a daughter of ‘miscegenation’ and a moving, intimate account of the course of her mother’s life, right up until its tragic end. With penetrating insight and a wistful, elegiac voice, Trethewey masterfully finds words to explore the unspeakable.
There is a clear sense of her desperation throughout: she is desperate to understand what happened, why it happened and how it was allowed to happen. But her investigation is rarely angry, does not look to point blame on inactive authorities or locate the crime in any racial contexts, it is instead something much more intimate and restrained, a rumination on grief and how it has shaped her both as a writer and as a woman. The inclusion of evidence- transcribed phone conversations, her mother’s own words and police reports- adds a heart-wrenching impact to Trethewey’s own reflections.
I cannot imagine what Trethewey had to go through to write this book. As with any other memoir about trauma and loss, I am in awe at the writer’s ability to make sense of something so senseless.
Trethewey is a Pulitzer-winner poet, and she writes this devastating memoir about loss and guilt with the sensibility and punch of a poet. There are pieces of her story that she leaves out, that I wondered about, but she's pared the story of her mother's death down to bits that matter to her and what she's willing to share with the world. I respect that, and I'm grateful to have read this story.
I'd suggest pairing this with No Visible Bruises, a recent nonfiction book about domestic violence.
I'd suggest pairing this with No Visible Bruises, a recent nonfiction book about domestic violence.
A beautifully written and incredibly gripping memoir about a woman whose mother was murdered by her former stepfather. She traces the history of her family and the trauma of her mother's death with a great deal of intention and insight.
challenging
dark
emotional
sad
fast-paced