[I may spoil some things for anyone who plans to read it. Overall, I don't think I do... but just in case, here's your alert.]
I lost a loved one almost 4 years ago to leukemia. My mom had breast cancer the fall of my senior year. Just a month ago, today, one of my niece's closest friends died at the age of 17 of renal cell cancer. The mention of the C-word and the evil that it creates has become something that easily brings tears to my eyes. So when I saw signed copies of The Middle Place by Kelly Corrigan for sale at Love Field, I figured it might be a good read during my flight with Thomas to Boston. Unfortunately, I was still working on finishing Dumas's The Three Musketeers, which took me about 9 months to finish.
I finally picked it up a week or so ago and eventually fell in love with it. I had read some reviews that tainted my mind as I started to read the book. Apparently some readers felt that Kelly let her father play such a "larger-than-life" [every review said this] role in her life... and she kind of let her mother and husband, Edward fall to the wayside. Initially, I felt the same way. She went on and on and on. In a way, it made me feel like I was back in high school and I was listening to my friends go on and on about the crazy shenanigans they went through that weekend. It was nice to hear, and I'm sure it was faaaabulous for them, but frankly, it just felt like bragging and I really just wanted to roll my eyes. A lot of her stories, however, circled around her mother. Her mother's strength of character. Sure the father was the happy-go-lucky goofball kind of dad, but her mother was there for Kelly in her time of need, and she stood tall and beside her husband through his time of need. Towards the end, she also paints a pretty good picture of her husband--especially the chapter when she describes their trip to Yale--and his great deal of patience.
I think the best thing about Kelly's writing was her candor. She was sometimes embarrassingly candid and honest about her life. There were some moments that even made me squirm a bit (birth chapter, anyone?) Sometimes she was so gut-wrenchingly honest that it made you want to run up to her and hit the backspace key. In one chapter she describes her fright as a mother when the beach party she's attending all realize that they can't find her daughter, Claire. Thoughts are swarming through her head, but finally she she silently offers to God her father. The backbone of her life. She, as a mother, would give anything--even something as important to her as her father--for the safety of her youngest daughter. It's one of those moments where I realized that she really DIDN'T have to tell us that private moment and private thought that she had. I appreciated it so much, I had to bump it from a solid B+ to an A-.
It's a good read. There's a lot more I can say about it, but... I'd rather not. So... go read it :)
No comments:
Post a Comment