Synopses & Reviews
The Montgomerys of Framingham, Massachusetts, are among the last of a dying breed New England WASPs who effortlessly combine repression, flamboyant eccentricity, and alcoholism. Fragmented by drink and dysfunction, the family had avoided assembling under one roof for more than a decade. But when Big Dad, the patriarch, was diagnosed with stomach cancer, the siblings all returned to their childhood home, Four Corner Farm, to help their parents navigate the specialists, treatment options, pain management, and, most difficult of all, their own anguish.
The Things Between Us is Lee Montgomery's alternately wrenching and riotous story of her family reuniting as one of their own is dying.
Even in healthy times, Big Dad moved carefully through life, taking responsibility for the farm, the cars, the house, and his wife. Meanwhile the irrepressible Mumzy drank her first gin each day at 8:45 a.m. and spent her time singing jazz standards and reliving the glory days when she rescued horses from the now defunct hunt club. Prickly and proud, the two tried always to keep their chins up. But Big Dad's cancer rattled their formidable denial, and their habitual coping mechanisms took on heightened meaning when he became sick and the family reconvened. In Big Dad's last months, Montgomery accompanied him on his daily walks as he bade farewell to the places where their lives had unfolded; she and her mother sang old songs, and eventually composed their own jazzy musical called If You're Dying of Cancer, Do You Want Us to Tell You?
Montgomery's stunning memoir vividly evokes the often unspoken bonds between family members bonds made of memory, love, and disappointment. Heartbreaking, lyrical, and often hilarious, The Things Between Us hums with a sense of wonder as the author discovers anew the most familiar people in her life, herself among them.
Review
"Montgomery has a lovely, straightforward, trustworthy style....There's no pretense of offering some grand lesson, other than love: Love as best as you can for as long as you can. That's all." Los Angeles Times
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"[T]ackles universal questions of love and loss without judgment or bitterness." Booklist
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"Montgomery writes her memoir with precision and grace, showing how a parent's decline and ultimate death can unite a family and lead to self-discovery, forgiveness, and healing." Library Journal
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"An immensely heartfelt book....What makes this memoir moving and memorable is that the love is firmly rooted in honesty, in a generous but still clear-sighted assessment of one family's struggles, alongside the closeness." Aimee Bender, author of Willful Creatures
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"This is not just another memoir of alcoholism and family dysfunction....Lee Montgomery paints flawed and aching people with a touching and lovely palette." Anthony Swofford, author of Jarhead
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"[P]erfectly captures a middle-aged rite of passage: returning home to help a parent die....[D]amn near perfect." Kirkus Reviews (Starred)
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"Montgomery has wrung an engrossing book from her eccentric childhood and the journey of reconnection." O: The Oprah Magazine
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"Lee Montgomery breathes new life into the dysfunctional family memoir with clean, vivid writing laced with a bitter bite." Variety
About the Author
Lee Montgomery is the editorial director of Tin House Books and executive editor of Tin House, a literary magazine. Her work has appeared in numerous publications, including Story Magazine, Black Clock, Denver Quarterly, and The Iowa Review. She lives in Portland, Oregon.
Table of Contents
Contents
Preface
1. Lunatics
Framingham, Massachusetts
2. The Garden
October 1998, Framingham, Massachusetts
3. Fury
1965, Framingham, Massachusetts
4. Wanderings
October 1998, Framingham, Massachusetts
5. The Diagnosis
October 1998, Boston, Massachusetts
6. Surgery
November 1998, Boston, Massachusetts
7. Miracles
Summer 1997, Framingham, Massachusetts
8. Recovery
November 1998, Framingham, Massachusetts
9. Thanksgiving
November 1998, Framingham, Massachusetts
10. Long Winter
February 1999, Portland, Oregon
11. Chemotherapy
March 1999, Framingham, Massachusetts
12. Escapes
May 1999, Portland, Oregon
13. Love Story
May 1999, Framingham, Massachusetts
14. Hands
May 1999, Framingham, Massachusetts
15. Floating
Memorial Day, 1999, Stevenson, Washington
16. Night
June 7, 1999, Framingham, Massachusetts
17. Ends
Tuesday, June8, 1999
18. Fireflies
Tuesday, June 8, Framingham, Massachusetts