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Liftby Kelly Corrigan |
Ginger Emas: I'm only on page 7 of Kelly Corrigan's new release,
Lift, but I've already cried once, had two lumps in my throat, and three vigorous
head-noddings as in, "I know just what you mean." I can't wait to absorb all of this
beautiful little book, but it is really, really little -- only 96 pages, what they
call a single-sitting read. In an email Kelly sent my radio show, she wrote,
"According to O Mag, it's bighearted. According to Anne Lamott, it's rich and intimate.
According to my mother, it's better than The Middle Place." That's right, Kelly is
the author of the also-wonderful Middle Place, which had me sobbing on the
introductory pages that don't even have page numbers, but are stuck with xi
and xii -- my tears soaked the book almost before I began. Oh, did I mention
that I LOVE to cry at books? So this is a POSITIVE point for me! So being that
Lift is only 96 pages long, I have told myself I will only read
a little bit at a time, like eating one tiny milk chocolate morsel ... letting it
sit on my tongue and melt naturally, slowly, so I can enjoy every single sensation.
That is how I am going to read Lift, and I can't wait! More to come...
Ginger Emas: Okay ... I stretched out this beautiful little book
for five whole days, and that includes the last few pages I read on a plane where I wanted to
gobble it all up at once. As it is, my seatmate wanted to know if I was alright, as a smile
played on my lips and tears streamed down my face when I came to the end of Lift. (Did
I mention I'm a cry-er? And I ENJOY that?) Lift encouraged me to feel things that I rarely
take the time to stop and feel. Kelly knows how to do that; to describe moments and people
in a way that is precious, that we can all relate to (without getting overly mushy.) Lift is part
memoir, part inspiration -- to live, to think, to take a moment to memorize what we love when
we look around us. It is not preachy; it is is REAL. She talks about a good friend of hers whose
son died, and gives us a glimpse into what friends do, what moms do, when the unthinkable
happens ... she also shares with us another good friend who wants to have a child on
her own, and what that road looks like, both from a friend's perspective (a friend who
adores being a mother above everything else) and from the perspective of the
single-mom-to-be. Page 79 I think is when I really began sobbing and thought about
locking myself in the AirTrain bathroom so I could emote all I wanted in peace.
But really, is there anything peaceful about an airplane bathroom? Thank you, Kelly,
for taking snapshots ... with your camera, and with your words. I have an idea: what
if we held a workshop and we all worked on a small memoir of what we want to shellack
in our lives?
Rating: *****
