Cover of The Middle Place
This is the first book I have completed from my Spring Reading Thing post.
Title: The Middle Place
Author: Kelly Corrigan
Publication Information: Voice; Reprint edition (December 23, 2008) , 288 pgs.
Genre: Non-Fiction – Memoir – Health/Aging/Cancer
My Grade: A+
Explanation/Summary:
From the back cover:
“At thirty-six, Kelly Corrigan had a marriage that worked, two funny, active kids, and a weekly newspaper column. Even then, she still saw herself as the daughter of a garrulous Irish-American charmer, George Corrigan. She was living deep within what she calls the Middle Place — “that sliver of time when parenthood and childhood overlap” — comfortably wedged between her adult duties and her parents’ care. But when Kelly Finds a lump in her breast — and gets the diagnosis that no one wants to hear — and when her beloved father, too, learns that he has late-stage cancer, Kelly finally takes the leap and grows up. And through her bravely honest, funny and inspirational memoir, she takes us with her.”
Analysis and Evaluation:
Absolutely. Just as the back cover promised, this was an honest, funny and inspirational telling of Corrigan’s experience with breast cancer.
I read the whole book in about five hours. The language is comfortable and it easily conveys the author’s message. Corrigan writes so well, it appears effortless. She has you laughing one moment and crying the next.
The strength is that it is a great story, it keeps the reader interested and engaged.
The weakness — very occasional foul language. The only reason I say this, is because in several other reviews I’ve commented negatively about the use of foul language – but somehow with cancer the foul language seems appropriate.
This is a book I’ll be telling everyone about. “I laughed, I cried, it moved me.”
Seriously, it was a moving memoir of a daughter, a sister, a wife, a mother, and a cancer survivor – all in one.Yes, add to your “Want to Read” list today.
