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kazzified29 's review for:
How to Forget: A Daughter's Memoir
by Kate Mulgrew
I have read Kate Mulgrew's premiere memoir, "Born With Teeth" roughly five times and I had recently read it in April. When 'How To Forget' was announced and that it was about Mulgrew's relationship with her parents, I was instantly intrigued. I have been following Mulgrew's career for close to twenty years and I have heard a myriad of stories about her parents, her upbringing, her siblings and her mother's battle with Alzheimer's Disease. Where 'Born With Teeth' barely touched about that disease, I was interested to see how 'How To Forget' would expand upon it.
Mulgrew has an undeniable gift with words. She is fiercely articulate and I always find myself needing a dictionary close-to-hand when reading anything by her. In 'How To Forget,' I found myself being witness to my own thoughts appearing on a page written by someone that I have admired for two-thirds of my life. That surprised me and took me aback. I found myself being witness to a new and heartbreakingly vulnerable side to Mulgrew. She does not try to hide how her parents' illnesses and deaths broke her heart and broke the hearts of her siblings. She is able to articulate with such skill something that I didn't know that I had felt and did not know how to verbalise when I watched my own father pass away from a terminal disease. This book truly struck a chord with me. I annotated this book as I read and I am so glad that I did because it helped me to absorb it and make peace with my own frustrations and pains. It is unwaveringly honest, heartbreaking, poignant and in places, wickedly hilarious. Kate Mulgrew's strength throughout this book is truly inspiring. She has never painted herself as a saint in either of her memoirs. She gives over to the reader a very personal, subjective and vulnerable narrative and you can tell that she needed to get this off of her chest. There were moments when I wanted to reach for the tissues and that I simply wanted to give her the biggest hug imaginable.
Even if you are not a fan of Kate Mulgrew or have been a fan for years, I would highly recommend this book. For someone that has lost a parent to a degenerative and wasting disease, Mulgrew's words made an impact that I will never forget and will find difficult to describe.
Mulgrew has an undeniable gift with words. She is fiercely articulate and I always find myself needing a dictionary close-to-hand when reading anything by her. In 'How To Forget,' I found myself being witness to my own thoughts appearing on a page written by someone that I have admired for two-thirds of my life. That surprised me and took me aback. I found myself being witness to a new and heartbreakingly vulnerable side to Mulgrew. She does not try to hide how her parents' illnesses and deaths broke her heart and broke the hearts of her siblings. She is able to articulate with such skill something that I didn't know that I had felt and did not know how to verbalise when I watched my own father pass away from a terminal disease. This book truly struck a chord with me. I annotated this book as I read and I am so glad that I did because it helped me to absorb it and make peace with my own frustrations and pains. It is unwaveringly honest, heartbreaking, poignant and in places, wickedly hilarious. Kate Mulgrew's strength throughout this book is truly inspiring. She has never painted herself as a saint in either of her memoirs. She gives over to the reader a very personal, subjective and vulnerable narrative and you can tell that she needed to get this off of her chest. There were moments when I wanted to reach for the tissues and that I simply wanted to give her the biggest hug imaginable.
Even if you are not a fan of Kate Mulgrew or have been a fan for years, I would highly recommend this book. For someone that has lost a parent to a degenerative and wasting disease, Mulgrew's words made an impact that I will never forget and will find difficult to describe.