Carolyn's Reviews > A Living Remedy: A Memoir

Had I remembered that I had read this author's first memoir, I would not have read this one. I picked it out as a recommendation, but did not connect it to her previous book.
This book is less about her (though the first several chapters set the scene) and more about her father's death, and the trauma of her mother's illness and death during the pandemic.

This is why I am not a fan. My dad died at 61, and it was not exceptional. Could he have had better health care? Yes, probably, but it was his own choice, and I believe, ultimately, the author's father made the same choice, ignoring what others had told him, and relying on his own, albeit faulty, instincts.
My mother died at 39, and it was a fact, and there is a story, but not a book.

The book feels a little sloppy, too drawn out: too many empty pages, too many repetitions, written in slightly different ways.
It feels, as many books do these days, full of filler: i.e., here's a good writer that needs a certain number of words to make it worth a publisher's effort.

Makes me think of the old commercial, Where's the beef?
Where is the "A-HA!" moment? When will I reach the part where I think, wow, the reviewers were right, and not just accepting free books in exchange for their "inflated star rating" opinions?

I dunno. Maybe I am being mean, because it is well written. It's just very light on substance, and makes me think twice, thrice, about the honesty of its high star ratings.