Glitter and Glue by Kelly Corrigan
| Glitter and Glue by Kelly Corrigan | |
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| Category: Autobiography | |
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Reviewer: Zoe Page
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| Summary: As a 20 something Yank traveling the world, Kelly's dream is not to be a substitute mother to children who have just lost theirs, but she soon learns more about herself, and her own mother, than she bargained for in this powerful memoir. | |
| Buy? Yes | Borrow? Yes |
| Pages: 352 | Date: February 2014 |
| Publisher: Coronet | |
| ISBN: 978-1444725148 | |
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When Kelly leaves the USA for a life-changing trip around the world, her goal is not to end up working as a nanny in suburban Sydney. And her goal is definitely not to turn into her mother in the process. She doesn't realise it at the time, but as this memoir shows, there are worse things that could happen.
This book is largely set with the Tanner family in Australia, with only minor mentions of her travels before and afterwards. Her reason for reflecting now is a health scare in the present which makes her think of the past, in particular of a family that had lost its mother. With two girls of her own now, this is something she is thinking about a lot.
This is a stunning book that had all the right elements needed to garner sympathy but not pity, for both the Tanner children and Kelly’s own ones. She tells us of a recently widowed man who is going through the motions, trying to keep things as normal as possible for the kids. Or children, as her own mother would call them. She tells of a chatty little boy who wants the world to be his friend, and his older sister whose sour puss face requires more than a neat French plait to fix.
It’s a great story, made all the more memorable because it is true. And because although it is far from Kelly’s dream job, she is a good person and she wants to do nice things for the family. I loved the adage , Things happen when you leave the house, but by the end it seemed that you don’t have to leave the house, as long as you’ve already left the country. Evan, I’m looking at you boy.
I thoroughly enjoyed this book, finishing it in under 48 hours. It can be hard, sometimes, to care that much about someone else’s life, their personal-to-them details that don’t mean much to you, but the author got me so invested in this book I needed to know what happened to all the featured characters. The ending, in particular the epilogue itself, made me weep and I was sorry for the way some of it turned out, though not surprised. I too have traveled the world and made great friends along the way, but I’d be at a loss to tell you where they are and what they’re doing now, Facebook updates aside.
I’d like to thank the publishers for sending us a copy to review. I’m so glad it landed in my lap.
Other memoirs we highly recommend include The Year We Disappeared: A Father-Daughter Memoir by Cylin Busby and John Busby and Mennonite in a Little Black Dress: A Memoir of Coming Home by Rhoda Janzen
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Glitter and Glue by Kelly Corrigan is in the Top Ten Autobiographies 2014.
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