SPLINTERS Another Kind of Love Story

Essayist and novelist Leslie Jamison chooses the tone and pacing of her narration as carefully as she selects the details of her powerful writing. These qualities, along with her candidness, invite listeners deep into her memories, which include the flower-filled hospital room where she stayed after delivering her daughter and desperate Internet searches for relief from her infant's continual crying. Descriptions are sometimes visceral, but Jamison blends them with wit, humor, and lyrical imagery that allow a bit of distance. Jamison's transitions can be fast but are always discernible and intriguing whether she's speaking of growing up, motherhood, divorce, dating, book tours, or single parenting during the pandemic. Her loneliness, guilt, and grief are mitigated by the insights and self-compassion she finds by the audio's end. S.W. © AudioFile 2024, Portland, Maine [Published: MARCH 2024]