Leslie Jamison

3.5 stars for Jamison’s memoir of her bitter divorce within a year after her first baby arrives, followed by coparenting, dating and COVID with a youngster. In fact, much about babies. Absorbing vignettes and although she dives deeply into introspection and self-analysis, I came away with no real ah ha moment as to her growth. She’ll continue to overthink her conversations and relationships, but her observations and writing skills are crackerjack.

Didn't capture me, so I returned it. At this moment in time, I have pretty much no interest in reading journalistic essays from the perspective of a privileged intellectual immersing herself in places where she's an outsider and examining the experience of doing so. I don't think there's anything inherently wrong with this exercise, I just feel as if I've read (and experienced) this narrative too many times to learn much from it. I'd rather hear from different voices.

The first story in the collection was STRONG. And I mean really strong. I expected each following essay would be equally as profound, however as the book progressed I found myself bored and frustrated. While it is evident that Jamison is an excellent writer, I often felt like her narcissism plagued each scenario at hand.