The Kari AnnAlysis

Posts Tagged ‘memoir’

So it’s not completely wordless… I am not good with wordless, but it will be short and sweet. As promised, I got some pictures from the book launch of Fly Away Home by Maggie Myklebust courtesy her daughter Michele (Thanks Michele for uploading!). Oh how I would have loved to be in Amsterdam for this!

If you would like to read my review on Fly Away Home, click here. If you would like to read my interview with Maggie, click here. 

I am going to forego the normal summary then thoughts format on this book and combine them all together.

I found out about Fly Away Home by Maggie Myklebust through Twitter. Her daughter Michelle, whom I met online and we quickly became Internet buddies mentioned that I should read it, so I immediately agreed before I really knew what I was getting myself into (imagine that).

Maggie ended up sending me a digital copy of her book and I downloaded it and got started. It took me a little while to realize this was Maggie’s memoir. I haven’t read a lot of memoirs in my time, I always go for fiction, but let me tell you, Maggie’s story is as close to fiction as you can be. There were times when I was reading the book that I caught myself saying, “This all really happened in her life?”.

Maggie grew up in Jersey, her family came to the US from Norway. After three kids and an unhealthy marriage, Maggie packs up and heads back to her family’s roots in Norway, where she reestablishes her relationship with her teenage crush and things start to look up. Maggie has two more kids and becomes a step mom and becomes a world traveler. She and her husband move back to the US for a few years, then move back to Europe. Her kids grow up and are scattered across two countries. What a life she has lived.

There were times in Maggie’s book where I related and said, “Amen sister.” There were times in her book where my heart broke for her and her children. But most of all, I have so much admiration and respect for Maggie. She has been through several and I mean several tough times in her life, through an abusive relationship, to health issues and she battled through. She is the epitome of never giving up. Now, Maggie says herself there were days and weeks and months she wanted to, but she still fought through and is such an inspiration. And I was so impressed with her will and courage. I knew she had family in Norway and spent time threre in her youth, but not many people can just up and leave a life and start a new one and she did it several times, in several different countries.

One of the things that I loved about this book is that Maggie went to a seminar on writing one day and came back with the idea that she would write her life story and guess what? She did and this is it. Being an (unpublished) author, I had mad respect for her for getting it all down and going with it. Everyone who dreams of being in this business knows the tireless hours that our writing haunts us and stories have to be told. I can’t even imagine writing my personal stories.

Another thing I love (stick with me, there are several) is my connection in this book. As I said, I met Michelle online and throughout this book, I felt like I learned so much about her and know her better now that I know where she came from and know her family’s story.

And finally, my last love point with this book is that Maggie Myklebust wrote from the heart. My biggest fear when writing my life story would be that I make people mad. I have the worst guilty conscience. If I have a feeling that I was rude to my parents or short with them, I end up calling them back, sobbing, apologizing. Not that Maggie bashed anyone in her book, but there were very honest moments about her father and her first husband and she was honest about her son’s autism. These are all very tough moments to write about she did it all very respectably and heartfelt.

I think it’s hard to rate nonfiction books because you can’t judge someone’s real life story like you can a fictional story, but let me say this, you need to read Fly Away Home. It is a wonderful account of a life and story that deserves to be told and read.

Nancy’s mom “Lola” has always been in the edge of sanity. All throughout Nancy’s life, “Lola” has been in and out of the electric chair – trying to get her shocked straight. Now, in her 50′s “Lola” has bigger problems. Her husband dies from carbon monoxide poisoning on their boat The Mr. Fix-It. That leaves “Lola” by herself, in a coma, with her grown children to take care of her. “Lola” wakes up, and like always, isn’t quite there. She doesn’t know how to change a light bulb when it burns out, she doesn’t understand that there is more milk in a container than can fit in her cup so it spills everywhere and she starts layering, but not in a good way. No one should ever wear 6+ pairs of panty hose at one time. Throughout the turn of events, Nancy finally feels like the daughter her mother never had. And miraculously, the mental instability seems to go as the carbon monoxide sets in.

I got The Center of the Universe from the Kelley and Hall Company. I haven’t really read a lot of memoirs, I am normally a fiction kind of girl, but I really enjoyed this book. Honestly, I think the reason I enjoyed it so much was that it doesn’t seem like it could be a realistic story. I know my childhood was pretty cookie cutter, but I still have a hard time grasping how some people grew up. I just can’t fathom having a mother who routinely was shocked to try to get the crazy out.

My grandmother had a stroke a year and a half ago, so I understand what Nancy and her siblings went through, trying to get their mother on the path to survival by herself. It’s definitely like starting over with a child, with high hopes that they’ll return to their old selves.

This book gave me a number of emotions. At times, I felt bad for Nancy and her siblings for going through this with their mother, in childhood and adulthood, I shed a tear or two as they worked to get her back up to par, I laughed my butt of at some of “Lola’s” antics. This book covered it all, heartbreak, love, suffering and the calm after the storm.

My dad works in the mental health field, so I am definitely going to pass this on to him (I get my reading obsession from him, the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree). I think he’ll really enjoy it.

I give The Center of The Universe 4 bookmarks. While I thoroughly enjoyed most of the book, there were times I caught myself skimming when it came to the medical terminology. I really wanted to understand it, it just didn’t sink in.

Happy Teaser Tuesday friends. You all know the rules. Open your current read, pick a couple of sentences to tease us, without spoilers. You also know I cheat and find really good ones. This week’s tease comes from The Center of the Universe: A Memoir by Nancy Bachrach.

Pg 87 “Dear Nantucket Dockmaster,

We can’t come in July
And here’s the reason why.
My Captain has just died.

            Sincerely, 
            Mrs. Hornstein
PS: Please return my twenty-five-dollar deposit“

What are you reading???