Supporting other writers any way I can is something I’m always willing to do. Writing is solitary work until your book comes out and then it’s all about community. Here’s my review of a memoir I recently read, Bayla Gittel’s A Legacy: Echoes of Loss and Healing in a Jewish-American Family. Hope you enjoy! ~
Bayla Gittel’s memoir, A Legacy: Echoes of Loss and Healing in a Jewish-American Family, is candid, illuminating and well-told. By tracing six generations of her family, Gittel reveals patterns that repeat, with repercussions felt in her own life and the lives of her children. Gittel’s account of her disintegrating marriage, once so filled with promise and optimism, rings with tragic authenticity. Echoes from her ancestors’ biographies continue to reverberate. This sweeping examination of kinship and roots confirms the words of Katherine Anne Porter: “The past is never where you left it.” Indeed, as Gittel’s memoir confirms, the past is often right in front of us, ours to cope with as we will. Brava to Bayla Gittel for finding courage to tell her story.
— Jessica O’Dwyer, award-winning author of Mother Mother: a Novel and Mamalita: An Adoption Memoir