Fairyland: A Memoir of My Father by Alysia Abbott

I loved this memoir. This was an illuminating Father / Daughter story, unique in its setting, and the fact that Alysia was raised by her single, gay father in San Francisco in the ’70’s and ’80’s. Maybe it’s my current orientation, but what I really took away from this book was the sense of motherless-ness (if that is even a word). This memoir was written with so much self-awareness. Abbott took twenty years to distill what was going on during her upbringing and her father’s death. Her willingness to admit the conflict of emotions she experienced as a young woman was honest and brilliant. Her father comes across as brilliant, caring, loving, and human. When I picked this book up, I couldn’t imagine the family dynamic described on the back cover, but after finishing it I felt connected and so appreciative this memoir was written.

Devotion: A Memoir by Dani Shapiro

This is a very honest and poignant memoir about Dani Shapiro’s search for a spiritual anchor. It combines so many facets of life, however, weaving a tapestry of experience and rumination that I found extremely relatable. I devoured this book and highly recommend.

The Middlesteins by Jami Attenberg

This was a great look into a troubled family, told from the point of view of multiple characters and across a broad spectrum of time. I was drawn to reading it as it was Attenberg’s break-out novel and I just recently discovered her work when I recently picked up “All This Could be Yours.” She is really obsessed by the theme of sharply divided family and how the vitriol that grows inside the eldest generation infects the younger. Attenberg’s language and observations are cutting and at the same time humorous. I also enjoy her inspecting the Jewish family under a microscope, since as a people, they self-identify as being shaped by memory and tradition. In the Middlesteins the rupture in relationships is heartbreaking to watch, but there is redemption in allegiances that are unexpected.

Motherland: A Memoir of Love, Loathing, and Longing by Elissa Altman

Motherland is the type of memoir I absolutely love, not constrained by chronology, it works the way memory works when we try to make meaning of the past and the to understand the most fundamental relationships. Altman’s language and imagery is pristine and carried me through the book with many a smile of recognition. I kept this book on my bedside table, picking it up for slivers before sleep, prolonging it’s wisdom and haunting message. As a grown daughter and mother of a daughter, a memoir like Motherland is a gift to those of us intent on forgiveness and moving forward.