Stephanie S. reviewed on + 168 more book reviews
After a wobbly start, I came to really like this book and read it in one sitting. The first few chapters were "set-ups" to illustrate her quirky parents and the "love-them-alot-while-they-drive-me-crazy" relationship she shares with them.
But then the meat of the memoir sets in--her younger brother is diagnosed with terminal cancer, and The Sweeneys rally up!--and I was thoroughly caught up in it all. If you've ever experienced tragic loss, watched a love one suffer and succumb, and felt first-hand the heartbreak of changing your prayers from "please make him well" to "please end his suffering", well, you know it's gut-wrenching, and Julia capures it all perfectly. I wept with her through each subtle stage of her brother's decline. And I love a book that actually makes me cry!
Her writing is wry and funny. The chapters are short and to the point.
**** Four stars!
But then the meat of the memoir sets in--her younger brother is diagnosed with terminal cancer, and The Sweeneys rally up!--and I was thoroughly caught up in it all. If you've ever experienced tragic loss, watched a love one suffer and succumb, and felt first-hand the heartbreak of changing your prayers from "please make him well" to "please end his suffering", well, you know it's gut-wrenching, and Julia capures it all perfectly. I wept with her through each subtle stage of her brother's decline. And I love a book that actually makes me cry!
Her writing is wry and funny. The chapters are short and to the point.
**** Four stars!
