A review by jenlouden
The Possibility of Everything by Hope Edelman

2.0

I took a writing class from Hope Edelman once many years ago and liked her immensely but the woman who shows up in most of this memoir I found myself seriously disliking. I skimmed most of the book just to find out what happens at the end, which did redeem the story for me to some extent. I learned so much reading this about what not to do in a memoir - I don't think there was enough of "ordinary reality" first so the weird behavior of her daughter Maya both didn't feel scary to me but more like a child with hasn't been raised with many limits. That probably isn't true but as a reader, I never got to see Maya and Hope functioning. I did get to see Hope portraying herself as a HYPER helicopter parent, which was so painful to watch/read. Her awareness stays too near the surface and she's too defended as a narrator. Another lesson as a writer: that probably was true of her when the events in the story happened ( I sure remember being a overly anxious mom at that age) but weaving in more of the older wiser narrator now would have been a huge help. The story content overall was very thin for me although, again, perhaps a different lens and focus would have changed that. For example, Hope portrays going to Belize as a big adventure, a big stretch. I laughed out loud. Everything the family does is arranged by a travel agent, they stay in nice places, and Belize, back then and where they went, was pretty safe (not true now) The scene near the end, when her daughter's doll turns up in another child's arms made me cringe. It feels like she turns an embarrassing encounter with an asswipe dad into a reflection of her spiritual growth. To end on a positive, the book is amazingly well written and a textbook example of weaving in research and a larger cultural picture to a personal story (although the result of said weaving also felt strained and fell flat for me.)