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Recommended by H.K., Collection Resources Dept. This collection of essays makes up a lovely memoir written by an American woman married to an Italian man, living frequently abroad. It didn't quite read like a travel journal, but the overt observations Martha Cooley makes about her surroundings all the way inward to the linguistic anomalies between she and her husband display a world broader than my own, although largely unremarkable. The author writes about friends she's known and lost and her own parents who live in the United States in a retirement and assisted living facility.
The essay that affected me most was one in which she describes a trip from Italy with her husband home to the states to visit her parents: a father in the early stages of dementia, and a mother who can no longer see, having developed sight loss early in life. The author admits to sweeping under the rug lingering questions about how her mother felt about not being able to physical watch her children grow up, and bares the emotions of being present in the assisted living center, describing clothes she's brought from Italy for her that she loves, sight unseen.
I would recommend reading this collection in pieces; on the whole it is a beautiful memoir, but each individual essay is powerful enough to let simmer in your mind for a day on its own.



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