Memoir Short Takes: Debilitating Disease & Bad Dates

Happy New Year? Not for this reviewer! Grief, death, sexual abuse, disease, pain, fear, and domestic violence form and inform this group of memoirs for the recovery-minded. It was not an easy bunch to read, and I am looking forward to a nice cup of tea and some chocolate.

Logelin, Matthew. Two Kisses for Maddy: A Memoir of Loss & Love. Grand Central. Apr. 2011. c.272p. ISBN 9780446564304. $24.99. MEMOIR
Logelin becomes a new father and a widower within 27 hours. The next year of his life speeds past in a haze of tears; diapers; memories of his wife, Liz; and, eventually, blogging. Though gutted by grief, Logelin creates a life for himself and his daughter, Maddy, with the help of family and friends of both the in-person and online kind. And he misses Liz every minute.
What I Am Telling My Friends Don't underestimate the importance of your "invisible" friends. The thing that distinguishes this sad, sad, story from other misery memoirs is the sweet but not sappy credit Logelin pays to those who helped him along the way. Read it and weep.

Manning, Sean, The Things That Need Doing: A Memoir. Three Rivers: Crown. 2010. c.256p. illus. ISBN 9780307463241. pap. $15. MEMOIR
Manning's mother dies a long, slow, horrible death, but he would not let her do it alone. This chronicle of Manning's year back in his native Ohio-with his New York life on hold-is replete with gruesome medical details, Buckeye nostalgia, and Manning family lore. The tone is personal, and the mood is melancholic because we know where this is headed from the start.
What I Am Telling My Friends Manning was a devoted son, and it must have been therapeutic to write this. But the book's biggest fan would've likely been his mother. There's not much here for the rest of us to use when our own booster rockets fall off.

Ross, Tracy. The Source of All Things: A Memoir. Free Pr: S. & S. Mar. 2011. c. 304p. ISBN 9781439172971. $26. MEMOIR
Sexual abuse by her stepfather, an adolescence spent in foster homes, and a mother who neither prevented the abuse nor provide stability shaped Ross's childhood. As an adult, she decided to live her life-spent mainly in the outdoors-by seeking truth and strength. The literal and figurative steps she took to confront her stepfather about their past, in the wilderness setting where he first began his abuse of her, reveal steely self-reliance and a rare capacity for forgiveness.
What I Am Telling My Friends Not in a million years would I have had the guts to do what Ross did, either in terms of her wilderness adventures or finding the truth and healing her past wounds. This is not always easy reading, but Ross's steady writing supports you til the very end.

Schwab, Christine. Take Me Home from the Oscars: Arthritis, Television, Fashion and Me. Skyhorse. May 2011. c.240p. ISBN 9781616082642. $24.95. MEMOIR
It is hard to combine the chic required of a TV fashion and beauty reporter and stylist with the sober accommodations demanded by a debilitating autoimmune disease like rheumatoid arthritis. Lifestyle maven Schwab tried for years and wound up sick, sore, and tired (in sneakers). Her efforts to hide what she considered a disease of the old and disfigured exhausted her almost as much as the illness itself. Her return to a life of high heels and jet-setting forms the center of this book-length equivalent of a magazine makeover.
What I Am Telling My Friends Schwab was hung up on concealing her "ugly" disease and, for good measure, drops some names and dishes some dirt. The hard work here was done by her doctors, so it's not easy to be sympathetic to her distraught saga.

Waldal, Elin Stebbins. Tornado Warning: A Memoir of Teen Dating Violence and Its Effect on a Woman's Life. Sound Beach. Feb. 2011. c.192p. ISBN 9780982981306. pap. $14.95. MEMOIR
Waldal fell for a bad boy and spent her teen years going in and out of a physically and emotionally abusive relationship. Relying on excerpts from her adolescent journals and re-created conversations, this story about growing from a terrified teen into a self-esteem spokesperson, wife, and mother is chronicled in scary detail.
What I Am Telling My Friends These are the tales they don't tell you when you are looking at real estate in places like Old Greenwich, CT, where Waldal grew up. It can happen anywhere, even the good neighborhoods.

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