McCracken writes in her memoir this simple sentence: “This is the happiest story in the world with the saddest ending.” She was a successful novelist and writing instructor in her 30’s when she met her husband and decided to start a family. Always resigned to be a spinster, McCracken was surprised when she quickly became pregnant and embraced her growing family. What happens next is the basis of this beautiful, poignant memoir. Days away from giving birth, she loses her baby and is forced to deliver her stillborn son in a hospital in France, where the new couple is living.
Powerful, bittersweet, but never self-pitying, McCracken explores what her life was like during that horrible time in France. The memoir is also humorous, uplifting, and happy in the end, when readers learn that McCracken is typing the manuscript with her new son (born a year after losing her first child) in her lap. One of the best examinations of grief, this memoir topped many “must read” lists in 2008, and would be perfect for those who loved The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion. - Reviewed by Sarah
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