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4.34 AVERAGE
4.34 AVERAGE
challenging
dark
sad
tense
fast-paced
I am scraped raw.
Memorial Drive is a memoir about Natasha's mother and how she was murdered by her stepfather. This book alternates from past and present POVs as Natasha recounts her first 18 years of life culminating in her mother's death. This book was emotional and hard to read. I wanted to go back in time to stop the pain that Natasha's family felt (minus the stepdad he deserves nothing).
This short book illustrates a complicated relationship between mother and daughter and several of the instances that put them on that path. But we always see how much her mother cared for her and her younger brother.
One of the most evocative parts of this memoir was that the Tretheway family had evidence that their stepfather was going to kill either the children or Natasha's mother. There are at least two if not more damning phone calls that were recorded yet the police did nothing. I don't know if it was misogyny or racism or misogynoir but I am just so devastated by this family's loss because it was so preventable had the police actually listened. Just another reason to defund and renovate the system.
Rep: Black/biracial author, Black mother, father in law with suicidal ideation and possible other mental illnesses.
CWs: Murder, Grief, death of parent, gaslighting, death, fatal shooting/gun violence, emotional and physical abuse, racism, child abuse, domestic abuse, alcohol consumption/alcoholism, toxic relationship.
Memorial Drive is a memoir about Natasha's mother and how she was murdered by her stepfather. This book alternates from past and present POVs as Natasha recounts her first 18 years of life culminating in her mother's death. This book was emotional and hard to read. I wanted to go back in time to stop the pain that Natasha's family felt (minus the stepdad he deserves nothing).
This short book illustrates a complicated relationship between mother and daughter and several of the instances that put them on that path. But we always see how much her mother cared for her and her younger brother.
One of the most evocative parts of this memoir was that the Tretheway family had evidence that their stepfather was going to kill either the children or Natasha's mother. There are at least two if not more damning phone calls that were recorded yet the police did nothing. I don't know if it was misogyny or racism or misogynoir but I am just so devastated by this family's loss because it was so preventable had the police actually listened. Just another reason to defund and renovate the system.
Rep: Black/biracial author, Black mother, father in law with suicidal ideation and possible other mental illnesses.
CWs: Murder, Grief, death of parent, gaslighting, death, fatal shooting/gun violence, emotional and physical abuse, racism, child abuse, domestic abuse, alcohol consumption/alcoholism, toxic relationship.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Physical abuse, Toxic relationship, Violence, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Gaslighting
Moderate: Alcoholism, Child abuse, Racism, Alcohol
"To survive trauma, one must be able to tell a story about it."
[b:Memorial Drive: A Daughter's Memoir|48613168|Memorial Drive A Daughter's Memoir|Natasha Trethewey|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1572991814l/48613168._SY75_.jpg|72583361] is a beautiful memoir that doesn't read much like other personal trauma narratives or true crime stories. Trethewey has less interest in straight narrative than she does in using resonant themes and haunting imagery to better conjure a rich sense of the lives that were interrupted by pointless, preventable violence.
There's a wrenchingly sad sense of futility about this book. Trethewey is undoubtedly a gifted writer. This memoir documents her struggle to find a way to write about her mother's murder so that it will finally make sense, or mean something, or stop hurting. In the end, language doesn't have that power.
This is a haunting, devastating read. Five stars.
[b:Memorial Drive: A Daughter's Memoir|48613168|Memorial Drive A Daughter's Memoir|Natasha Trethewey|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1572991814l/48613168._SY75_.jpg|72583361] is a beautiful memoir that doesn't read much like other personal trauma narratives or true crime stories. Trethewey has less interest in straight narrative than she does in using resonant themes and haunting imagery to better conjure a rich sense of the lives that were interrupted by pointless, preventable violence.
There's a wrenchingly sad sense of futility about this book. Trethewey is undoubtedly a gifted writer. This memoir documents her struggle to find a way to write about her mother's murder so that it will finally make sense, or mean something, or stop hurting. In the end, language doesn't have that power.
This is a haunting, devastating read. Five stars.
dark
emotional
sad
medium-paced
medium-paced
In Memorial Drive, Natasha Tretheway explores one of the defining moments of her life: when she was nineteen, her stepfather, Joel, murdered her mother, Gwen. This memoir accomplishes so much: it allows her to make sense of the trauma, it conveys the experience of growing up with a Black mother and white father in the south in the 1960s, and it gives her mother, Gwen, a voice.
Tretheway vividly describes her extended family in Mississippi and her close relationship with her grandmother and Aunt Sugar, and the difficult displacement when she and her mother moved to Atlanta after her parents’ divorce. Living with Joel was difficult, not just because he abused her mother but also because he tormented Tretheway psychologically, though she found some creative ways to retaliate. Although she never thought she would return to Memorial Drive, in adulthood, her career brought her back to Atlanta where geography and memory overlapped.
The 19th Poet Laureate of the United States, Tretheway writes in a lyrical prose dense with meaning and full of beauty. Not only is the content important and valuable, the book is skillfully constructed. It is an excavation of memory, a reminder how the anchors of the past continually inform and give meaning to the present and future. In reading this, I was at turns devastated and outraged, but I know that is nothing compared to living these events. Still, as Tretheway concludes, writing through trauma and finding some meaning in it promotes survival and healing.
Thank you to NetGalley and Ecco for providing an advance reading copy in exchange for an honest review.
Aimee Dars Reads | Twitter | Facebook | Instagram | Flickr | Pinterest
Tretheway vividly describes her extended family in Mississippi and her close relationship with her grandmother and Aunt Sugar, and the difficult displacement when she and her mother moved to Atlanta after her parents’ divorce. Living with Joel was difficult, not just because he abused her mother but also because he tormented Tretheway psychologically, though she found some creative ways to retaliate. Although she never thought she would return to Memorial Drive, in adulthood, her career brought her back to Atlanta where geography and memory overlapped.
The 19th Poet Laureate of the United States, Tretheway writes in a lyrical prose dense with meaning and full of beauty. Not only is the content important and valuable, the book is skillfully constructed. It is an excavation of memory, a reminder how the anchors of the past continually inform and give meaning to the present and future. In reading this, I was at turns devastated and outraged, but I know that is nothing compared to living these events. Still, as Tretheway concludes, writing through trauma and finding some meaning in it promotes survival and healing.
Thank you to NetGalley and Ecco for providing an advance reading copy in exchange for an honest review.
Aimee Dars Reads | Twitter | Facebook | Instagram | Flickr | Pinterest
I am trying so hard to find the words that will convince someone reading this to buy this book. It’s fearless. It’s about survival. It’s gut wrenching. It’s something that I think will be read more by women when it should probably be given to men.
It’s strange and laughable for someone like me to write about a book like this. Of course the writing is incredible, Trethewey is a poet laureate twice over. But that’s just part of this. She brings her mother’s words into the narrative and it’s a resurrection of someone whose life was ripped away by a truly sick and damaged man.
I thought about the kids I knew growing up who whispered about their parent’s fights. “My parents fucking hate each other.” You aren’t supposed to talk about these things... but we talked about it. We couldn’t process it. We told each other we would “never stay” and were “really strong” as if we knew what that meant or looked like.
This book is chilling. It’s horrifying. I found myself wanting to change the ending. I also feel strongly that Natasha and Gwendolyn’s story is a crucial one to hear and carry.
It’s strange and laughable for someone like me to write about a book like this. Of course the writing is incredible, Trethewey is a poet laureate twice over. But that’s just part of this. She brings her mother’s words into the narrative and it’s a resurrection of someone whose life was ripped away by a truly sick and damaged man.
I thought about the kids I knew growing up who whispered about their parent’s fights. “My parents fucking hate each other.” You aren’t supposed to talk about these things... but we talked about it. We couldn’t process it. We told each other we would “never stay” and were “really strong” as if we knew what that meant or looked like.
This book is chilling. It’s horrifying. I found myself wanting to change the ending. I also feel strongly that Natasha and Gwendolyn’s story is a crucial one to hear and carry.
challenging
dark
medium-paced