A review by emilyinherhead
Elegies for the Brokenhearted by Christie Hodgen

3.5

What matters, I said, is people. What matters is home, that we look at each other, really look at each other, and say to each other, You are what matters to me, you are home. (193)

What an attention-grabbing concept: a novel in elegies. Through chapters focused on five different people she loved and lost at various points in her life, Mary Murphy tells her own story. We learn about her unpredictable and sometimes violent childhood; turbulent relationships with her sister and mother; coming-of-age in high school, college, and beyond; and first experiences in the work force. She’s always narrating to an off-screen “you,” the subject of each elegy.

This is a sad book, about a life filled with upheaval, unpredictability, hurt, illness, and loss. Mary doesn’t have it easy. And yet, there is still hope in the end, the final chapter closing on a note of redemption and reconciliation, Mary’s future still unwritten.