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4.34 AVERAGE
4.34 AVERAGE
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-paced
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-paced
dark
emotional
sad
medium-paced
dark
emotional
sad
tense
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
tense
slow-paced
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Racial slurs, Racism, Toxic relationship, Violence, Grief
Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism
emotional
sad
medium-paced
Content Warnings
Graphic: Domestic abuse, Gun violence, Physical abuse
Moderate: Emotional abuse, Racism
challenging
emotional
sad
tense
medium-paced
Natasha Trethewey begins her memoir Memorial Drive with a question: Do you know what it means to have a wound that never heals?. A heartbreaker of a question that permeates throughout the book. The reader finds out early on that her mother was shot and killed by her ex-husband. Trethewey then slowly lays out the story, leading up to the crime. This story is heart wrenching and was so difficult to read. The situation was untenable- the man was threatening her, and the police did not do enough. Reading the transcripts of phone calls between her mother, a social worker, trying to rationalize with this man is gut punch. The ongoing trauma that both her mother experiences and the author feels in the aftermath of the murder is horrible. I read this with a pit in my stomach the whole time. Even so, it is so well-written and engaging. Trethewey is a US Poet Laureate and I can see why- she has such a way with words. Wow.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Violence
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Content Warnings
Graphic: Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse
Thanks to Harper Collins/Ecco and Edelweiss for sharing the ARC of this memoir. Memoir is not usually my favorite genre, but something about the description of this one spoke to me. It’s a beautifully written, haunting and poignant story of the author’s (Natasha Trethewey, former US Poet Laureate) coming to terms with her mother’s murder and what she believed (wrongly) was her own complicity in it. Recommended.