I think you all know by now that I love a good memoir. Call it the voyeur in me, but I kind of get off on losing myself in someone else’s, um, less than perfect life. So, of course, when I saw this title, Falling Apart In One Piece: One Optimist’s Journey Through the Hell of Divorce by Stacy Morrison, I had to read it.
Now don’t get me wrong. I’m not attracted to books about other people’s struggles because I want to feel better about my own life (although that is a teensy part of it), but because I have a lot of respect for someone who can let it all hang out; who can be vulnerable; who can admit to making mistakes; and who can see both sides of a very hard situation. Which is exactly what Stacy Morrison succeeds in doing in her gripping memoir about her divorce.
I always know the moment I love a book. It’s when I’m hooked from the first page. I don’t need any literary “foreplay” to get me into the mood, I just need a good opening line. And when I read Morrison’s first sentence, “I suppose I should start where it all started. Or, more specifically, started ending. The night Chris told me he was done with our marriage,” I was in.
From that point forward, Morrison captures the experience of her divorce in an honest and emotional way. From how she describes curling up on the kitchen floor and crying for hours, sometimes even waking her baby, to breaking down at her office in her brand new role as editor in chief of Redbook Magazine.
I like that through it all, even in her darkest moments where one second she’s obsessing about the crumbs under the stove and the next, she’s sobbing hysterically on the tile floor of her kitchen, she remains optimistic. Sure she had moments of anger, frustration, and even fear. But as she tells the story, weaving in and out from the divorce to the marriage, she doesn’t give up. Not even when the basement is repeatedly flooding in her dream home that turns out to be more of a money pit. And when you reach the end of this book, you’ll discover that she learns valuable lessons about herself and comes out a stronger, happier person.
So if you like a good memoir, you’ll LOVE this book. And in my opinion, everyone can relate to it, whether you’ve experienced divorce or not. Because it’s about life, mistakes, and learning how to pick up the pieces.
Do you have a favorite memoir?
Lisa Steinke, along with her best friend Liz Fenton, co-authored the chick lit novel I’ll Have Who She’s Having and co-created the popular Chick Lit blog, Chick Lit is Not Dead.
Lisa,
I usually only read memoirs, or autobiographies, by authors who have touched me in some way, after reading their novels, or books. I like to know more about them....how they've applied their life, how it connects, to their writing. I don't visit books that talk about divorce, probably because I went through one of my own, and I don't care to go there, again....good, or bad....nice, or angry....it's not a place to re-visit. Done! Gone! Over and Out! 
Kathy
Hey, Lisa, I'll revisit you! I've been sort of buried in JD Sali
nger's Bananafish...Ugh!
I was also wondering why you were reading a book on divorce...seems like it was just yesterday you got married! Ha! I see why, now....
I read Julie Andrews' memoir because I love her music, and thought her life might be interesting, growing up in the theater.....And maybe find that little hidden spice we hear about. Her memoir was kind of dull. The facts, dates, no real feeling of the woman. I read it all, thinking there must be something in her life she wanted to divulge to me! Nope! She writes children's books, now, and that's kind of how her life was being translated into her memoir..Grandma writes for an audience she's not sure about... I didn't feel it worked.....But I still love her!
A long time ago, I had read Carol Burnett's first book, and it was great...truely honest. I think it was called, One More Time. I'm thinking about picking up her new one that just came out, This Time Together: Laughter and Reflection. I love her wit!
Anyway, if someone interests me, sure, I'll read them. I thought about writing my own memoir, once, but decided that the cover would have to be a brown paper sack! I wonder how that would grab the reader?.....
Maybe with a large glossy red X on the front?
So, when are you going to write your memoir!
Gleek,
Kathy
