Title: TILTING: A MEMOIR
Author: NICOLE HARKIN
Genre: NON-FICTION, BIOGRAPHIES AND MEMOIRS
Length: 200 PAGES
Publisher: BLACK ROSE PUBLISHING
Received From: BLOG TOUR HOSTED BY: RACHEL’S RANDOM RESOURCES
ISBN: 9781612968926
Rating: 5 out of 5 Stars ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
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DESCRIPTION:
We only learned about our father’s girlfriend after he became deathly ill and lay in a coma 120 miles from our home.
Overhearing the nurse tell Linda–since I was nine I had called my mom by her first name–about the girlfriend who came in almost every day to visit him when we weren’t there confirmed that the last moment of normal had passed us by without our realizing it. Up to then our family had unhappily coexisted with Dad flying jumbo jets to Asia while we lived in Montana. We finally came together to see Dad through his illness, but he was once again absent from a major family event–unable to join us from his comatose state. This is the moment when our normal existence tilted.
Dad recovered, but the marriage ailed, as did Linda, with cancer. Our family began to move down an entirely different path with silver linings we wouldn’t see for many years.
In this candid and compassionate memoir which recently won a Gold Award in The Wishing Shelf Book Award, Nicole Harkin describes with an Impressionist’s fine eye the evolution of a family that is quirky, independent, uniquely supportive, peculiarly loving and, most of all, marvelously human.
Purchase Links:
View the Book Trailer – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZO1niSUWsuA
MY REVIEW:
This candidly written memoir will draw you in and have you feeling like you grew up alongside the author. It will alternately tug at your heartstrings and make you so angry you could just explode.
Author Nicole Harkin has a knack for uncovering and relating her family’s life and history in a humorous way, yet, even through the humor you can sense the deep hurt she felt both as a child and as a young adult. Quotes, such as the one below demonstrate a frank openness that is startling in its honesty.
“I didn’t feel like I was part of my family. We were a group of individuals who lived together under one roof.”
With the shocking revelations she uncovers and the benefit of hindsight, author Nicole Harkin invites readers to examine alongside her every aspect of her life.
Readers would easily forgive her for condemning both of her parents for the way in which Nicole and her siblings were raised, and would especially forgive her for any ill will toward her philander father. Yet Nicole Harkin rises above and tells her story in such a way that those people she could have easily portrayed as villainous, seem less hateful and more just as hopelessly flawed human beings.
I applaud the fact that the author waited until both her parents passed away before releasing this memoir. It shows that no matter how screwed up her family was, she still somehow learned empathy, compassion and integrity.
This is a terrific read which just might make you reexamine your own family’s dysfunctions and begin to see them in a more positive light. This exceptional memoir also reminds readers that no individual, and indeed, no family unit is perfect – no matter how it appears from the outside.
I rate TILTING as 5 out of 5 Stars ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ and will be adding This book to my list of recommended reads.
*** Thank you to RACHEL’S RANDOM RESOURCES for providing me with a free softcover copy of this book.***
EXCERPT:
One of the most telling parts of the book is the following excerpt:
“We sat around and retold funny family stories, like the time years earlier when Dad had forgotten Montana [the author’s youngest sibling] at the store.
Don’t all parents forget their children in stores sometimes?
No.
Oh. Interesting.
That day, Jenny [a friend] and I had just gotten out of the hot tub in the old house. Linda [the author’s Mother] kept yelling for Montana to come and get lunch. We sat down to a sandwich in our swimming suits. Uncle Frankie, Dad’s brother, was there too.
‘Frankie, have you seen Montana?’ Linda asked.
‘No.’
‘Jack, have you seen Montana?’ she asked.
Just then the look of recognition ran across Dad’s face. A millisecond later he was headed towards the front door yelling,’ Call the hardware store’.
Unfortunately, even in our small town, there was more than one hardware store.
Dad found Montana crying hysterically. Dad told Montana he could get any toy he wanted. ”
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QUOTES
“My family operated like six little planets occasionally intersecting and interacting with one another.” (Page 93)
“This crisis stripped everything to its absolute essence. We were a family trying to survive a crisis of physical, financial, and emotional proportions.” (Page 94)
“I’ve read that women either pick ‘dicks’ or ‘dads’. The dicks are the fun guys who aren’t ready to settle down and parent. The dads are men who are natural caregivers and helpers, who are ready to be parents. The women in my family are drawn to the dicks, but the dicks – even when they become dads – cause the most trouble.” (Page 106)
“We sat around and retold funny family stories, like the time years earlier when Dad had forgotten Montana [the author’s youngest sibling] at the store.
Don’t all parents forget their children in stores sometimes?
No.
Oh. Interesting. ”
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Nicole Harkin currently resides in Washington, DC with her husband and two small children. She works as a writer and family photographer.
As a Fulbright Scholar during law school, Nicole lived in Berlin, Germany where she studied German environmentalism.
Her work can be found in
She works as a writer and family photographer.
As a Fulbright Scholar during law school, Nicole lived in Berlin, Germany where she studied German environmentalism.
Her work can be found in Thought Collection and you are here: The Journal of Creative Geography.
She is currently working on mystery set in Berlin.
Her photography can be seen on her website. To learn more about this author, visit the following links:
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