Tag: grief

author suzanne strempek shea lauds ‘louie’

When I sat down to my newly-assigned desk in the middle of the bustling and messy Springfield, Mass. offices of what was then called The Union-News, I was unaware that, diagonally across from me was a fellow reporter with whom I would go on to develop a long-term professional relationship.

Suzanne Strempek Shea, who became an award-winning author and writing instructor, would be the reason why I enrolled in the Bay Path University creative nonfiction MFA program she helped create. She’d also be the reason why I later became an instructor for that same program. She’d eventually blurb nearly every book of mine as I followed in her footsteps of leaving daily reporting and plunging into the worlds of writing and teaching.

I remain grateful for her willingness to carefully read and blurb my work, including this one she wrote for Louie on the Rocks:

A truly cautionary tale for anyone who worries for the welfare of a vulnerable elder, Louie on the Rocks reads like the real life that Meredith O’Brien chronicled so skillfully in her newspaper days. Here she presents both sides of the case for and against alcoholic, widowed retiree Louie Francis’ ability to run his own life, an existence also pocked by a drug-addicted girlfriend half his age who fills his need for companionship and MAGA-wear while emptying his bank account. Narrator Louie’s chapters are interwoven with those bearing the distinct voices and points of view of his gay daughter grieving her mother and trying to do the best for a surviving parent who returns only hatred, and his late wife, who watches from beyond while recounting her life and the parts she played in making both father are daughter who they’ve become, and might yet be. The story is further enriched by the character and characters of the author’s Central Massachusetts, and by her first-hand knowledge of small-town life and all its complexities.

Thank you Suzanne!

author leslie gray streeter on ‘louie’

Baltimore-based author Leslie Gray Streeter and I met one another in 2020 just when our memoirs — mine, Uncomfortably Numb, and hers, Black Widow — hit the shelves. Our book promo plans upended by the pandemic, we joined a group of 70+ writers who all had books released at the same time, and we collectively tried to help one another.

A few years later, I met Leslie in person when I invited members of our writers’ group, Lockdown Lit, to a group book event at Tatnuck Bookseller in Westborough, Mass.

When it came time to solicit blurbs for Louie on the Rocks, her name immediately popped into my head because she and I are frequently liking one another’s posts on social media.

I also had the pleasure of reading an advance copy of her forthcoming novel, Family and Other Calamities. I LOVED it and can’t wait for others to have the delightful experience.

Here’s her full blurb:

Louie On The Rocks is a frank and, at times, blisteringly funny testament to the corroding influences of grief, addiction , polarization, regret and emotional abandonment. It’s told with multiple vivid voices giving witness to a tragic chain of events that might be stoppable – but probably aren’t.

— Leslie Gray Streeter

three writers on ‘uncomfortably numb:’ ‘triumphant,’ ‘riveting’ & ‘engaging’

41y3qh52bytl._sx326_bo1204203200_Three wonderful writers — memoirists and a novelist — generously agreed to read early copies of Uncomfortably Numb: A Memoir and to share with me their thoughts about it. And their words, dear reader, were very kind.

Marisa Bardach Ramel, co-author of The Goodbye Diaries: A Mother-Daughter Memoir of loss and love, wrote:

Uncomfortably Numb is a journalist’s investigation to uncover the mysterious illness that plagues her, combined with a mother’s touch to understand how it will impact her family, her career, and the rest of her life. A triumphant story of determination and resiliency. 

51spuobfyll._sx325_bo1204203200_Meanwhile, novelist Joan Dempsey, author of This is How It Begins, offered this:

A riveting memoir … O’Brien’s honesty, humility and humor will have you flying through the pages, rooting for her every step of the way.

Finally, writer Lisa Romeo — who was one of my MFA professors when I was working on Uncomfortably Numb — author of memoir, Starting with Goodbye: A Daughter’s Memoir of Love after Loss, was the perfect person to review the memoir because, in addition to its chronicling of my MS diagnosis, it also details my mother’s sudden illness and death at age 65. I was diagnosed with MS four months after she passed.

swg-final-with-tabsRomeo wrote:

Uncomfortably Numb pulls readers into the reality of an unexpected and life-altering diagnosis of multiple sclerosis, with forthright clarity, detail, heart, and insight. O’Brien’s memoir is not only a gift to adults dealing with MS, but also for people grappling with any other sudden onset diseases and similarly “invisible” conditions — and for the people who love them.

This story offers the full view of how MS invades a life, from fear, loss, and complications, to adjustments and small victories. The author’s story of the first few years of disease progression — overlapping with raising teenagers, continuing a career, grief, and midlife losses — takes readers through challenges, triumphs, and disappointments of all sizes, on the road to acceptance.

At turns unsettled and dispirited, O’Brien is also an appealing narrator you’ll root for as she advocates for herself (and by extension, for other women whose undiagnosed symptoms are often dismissed). Along the way, she comes to understand her disease and herself more thoroughly as she creates her new reality. An engaging, thought-provoking, informative story, and a narrator you’ll want to know and follow.

Thank you, thank you, thank you Marisa, Joan, and Lisa.

Image credits from Amazon, Joan Dempsey, and Lisa Romeo.