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jaclynday 's review for:
In Spite of Everything: A Memoir
by Susan Gregory Thomas
I don’t even remember why I put this book on my to-read list. I have no idea where I saw it (was it a recommendation?) or if maybe I read another review (on Oprah.com, perhaps?), but the subject matter of this honest, powerful memoir hits closer to home than anything I’ve read in some time.
Thomas starts the book with the following:
For most of my generation—Generation X—there is only one question: “When did your parents split?” Our lives have been framed by the answer. Ask us. We remember everything.
I may not be a part of Generation X, but I have grown up surrounded by friends coming from divorced homes and now find myself in the situation of being an adult child of separated parents—a recent occurrence that I would not have believed even if my current self had traveled back in time to tell me about my future.
What Thomas’ memoir does right is relay the emotional wounds that can exist after a major familial upheaval, like divorce. Her divorce from her husband ravages not only her emotional spirit, but her physical self as well, and I felt for her with every passing page. What’s wrong with the book, then? I had no major problems with it, but did feel that Thomas attempted to toe some line between memoir and objective nonfiction about the ravages of divorce upon a generation without altogether successfully fusing the two. But, by the end of the book, I didn’t notice this (it becomes 100% memoir somewhere past the middle) and didn’t really care either. Her honest voice and vivid retelling of difficult—even tragic—memories held my attention for hours at a time until I turned the final page.
Here is a paragraph from early in the book that has been rumbling around in my head from the moment I read it:
Our fear is that “alone” is the central truth that lies at the heart of the universe, and that we cannot provide them [our children] with an unimpeachably happy childhood, our children will be forced to stare into that void by themselves, too. But what if that isn’t true? What if there is more than this? What if the only truly perfect gem that we can really keep and share with our children is that none of us is alone—that they can remain loved and secure, in spite of everything?
Have you read this book? What did you think?
Thomas starts the book with the following:
For most of my generation—Generation X—there is only one question: “When did your parents split?” Our lives have been framed by the answer. Ask us. We remember everything.
I may not be a part of Generation X, but I have grown up surrounded by friends coming from divorced homes and now find myself in the situation of being an adult child of separated parents—a recent occurrence that I would not have believed even if my current self had traveled back in time to tell me about my future.
What Thomas’ memoir does right is relay the emotional wounds that can exist after a major familial upheaval, like divorce. Her divorce from her husband ravages not only her emotional spirit, but her physical self as well, and I felt for her with every passing page. What’s wrong with the book, then? I had no major problems with it, but did feel that Thomas attempted to toe some line between memoir and objective nonfiction about the ravages of divorce upon a generation without altogether successfully fusing the two. But, by the end of the book, I didn’t notice this (it becomes 100% memoir somewhere past the middle) and didn’t really care either. Her honest voice and vivid retelling of difficult—even tragic—memories held my attention for hours at a time until I turned the final page.
Here is a paragraph from early in the book that has been rumbling around in my head from the moment I read it:
Our fear is that “alone” is the central truth that lies at the heart of the universe, and that we cannot provide them [our children] with an unimpeachably happy childhood, our children will be forced to stare into that void by themselves, too. But what if that isn’t true? What if there is more than this? What if the only truly perfect gem that we can really keep and share with our children is that none of us is alone—that they can remain loved and secure, in spite of everything?
Have you read this book? What did you think?