MEMORIAL DRIVE

MEMORIAL DRIVE – A DAUGHTER’S MEMOIR

BY NATASHA TRETHEWEY

Natasha Trethewey has twice been appointed poet laureate of the United States. Her beautiful words, her turn of a phrase, her ability to reach inside the reader and herself by turning thoughts into language in Memorial Drive: A Daughter’s Memoir, testify that this was a well-deserved appointment.

Ms. Trethewey takes us back to her childhood, growing up as a mixed-race child of an African-American mother and a white Canadian father. She brings forth memories of her relationship with each parent, but most especially of her mother, as her parents divorced when she was small. The author writes about racial situations that occurred in her life, and her touch on these topics is deft, meaningful, an underlying but not overwhelming focus of her story.

She tells with pride and love of her mother throughout the book, and although we know ahead of time that her mother was killed, shot point-blank in the head by her stepfather, it’s still a shock to read her description. Her mother did the right things, reported her abuse to the police, kept detailed records and recorded phone interviews of and with her abuser, but he was still able, in a quick moment, to end her life.

The author tells of her stepfather’s brief times in mental health facilities, yet her mother’s recorded phone conversations with him pointed to a severely unstable and dangerous person who needed extensive help that he didn’t receive. I can’t help but wonder how things would have turned out if he had received that help.

This book is written beautifully and poetically. As I read each chapter, I kept getting the feeling that Ms. Tretheway was still trying to make sense of what happened and how often situations could have played out differently. So many times at the end of the chapter, I felt a wistfulness, and wondering, a “perhaps,” in her trying to understand it all.

This is a poignant, touching book that I recommend. However, be aware of the descriptions of domestic abuse depicted within.

Thanks to NetGalley and Harper Collins Publishers/Ecco for an ARC in exchange for my honest review.