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What Happens Every Day?

October 9th, 2009 Mary - Lakeview

“Another memoir?” my husband responded when he asked me what I was reading and I answered the same way I often do .  Yes, it’s true.  I can’t seem to get enough of these true stories of coming of age, falling in love, heartbreak, despair, addiction, and every other wonderful or horrible thing that happens every day to regular people.  Happens Every Day: An All-Too-True story is no great departure from the tried-and-true formula for memoirs of heartbreak: seemingly perfect life, perhaps a few cracks in the relationship or signs of trouble, followed by a shocking discovery/confession.

Author Isabel Gillies does lead a seemingly perfect life.  She and her family have recently moved into a beautiful, old house in Oberlin, Ohio where her husband is a poetry professor.  Gillies starts a part-time teaching job in the theatre department, oversees renovations on her old home, and is a full-time mother of two young boys.  Her perfect life is turned upside-down when her husband abruptly announces that he no longer wants to be married to her.  Gillies is not only shocked and heartbroken but also completely unwilling and certainly not ready to end her marriage.  She attempts to work things out with her husband, but it’s clear very early on that he doesn’t want to be married… at least, not to her.

Like Split: A Memoir of Divorce and I Loved, I Lost, I Made Spaghetti, two other engaging memoirs that deal with breakups and heartbreak, Happens Every Day is an enjoyable read first and foremost because Gillies knows how to get to the point.  She may not be the greatest writer (in fact she was an actress first) but she manages to charmingly and succinctly describe her family, her marriage, her job, and her town in such a way that I truly was drawn to her story.  Additionally she comletely manages to avoid self-pity and extreme negativity, a huge feat in itself.  Finally, for those of you who prefer not to read a completely depressing memoir, this is the one for you!

Entry Filed under: Memoir & Biography