A review by purplemuskogee
Constellations by Sinéad Gleeson

challenging emotional reflective slow-paced

4.0

These essays about illness were very engaging and touching, with the narrator starting with her childhood in 1980s Ireland, where after several gruelling operations for arthritis on her hip, she is sent on a pilgrimage to Lourdes in the hope of being cured. These were my favourite essays, along with Second Mother, the last one about her aunt Terry, lost to dementia. The writing is beautiful and poetic and it reads very pleasantly; I found many of the essays on pregnancy and motherhood less interesting but that's just my personal taste. The essay on abortion was interesting but not particularly original. I disliked the poems in the letter to her daughter and the ones about pain, I found them too disjointed for me. Overall still a collection I enjoyed and I would love to read more of her essays, especially if they relate to her own experience.