I received a copy of The Middle Place written by Kelly Corrigan from Hyperion. As you all know, I love a good read and stick mostly to works of fiction. This book, however, chronicals the author's journey as she battles breast cancer while being a wife and mother to two girls (three years old and a 1 and 1/2 year old) and at the same time is "George Corrigan's daughter." Hence, this is "The Middle Place" where one is both an adult and still someone's child all at the same time.
What I really liked about this book is that while we learn of Kelly's trials as she battles cancer - first her own breast cancer and then at the same time her father's bladder cancer - we also learn about her childhood, adolescence and the classic mother-daughter conflicts that so many of us can relate to and are hoping to avoid in the future with our own little girls. We also get to see the "full circle" as Kelly, now a mother herself, reflects on those conflicts. In doing so, she sees them more clearly for the what they were: expressions of love from a mother who is trying her best to raise a strong and competant daughter.
Kelly's story resonates with me, not because of the obvious connection so many of us have with family, loved ones, or God forbid ourselves who have suffered from cancer. Rather, Kelly's conversational writing style was comfortably similar to my own so it seemed like I was reading letters and the memoirs from a long-lost friend who I wanted desparately to be a winner in life. The Middle Place definitely made me laugh as she told stories about her family and cry with her through some of her cancer "low points" such as shaving her head before her daughters witnessed it all coming out on its own.
Thank you, Kelly Corrigan, for such a brave and honest account of the battle you and your father faced against this awful disease.
You can read more reviews about The Middle Place at Everyday I Write The Blog.