The Middle Place
Sign in to keep track of books you’ve read and want to read.
Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers
Corrigan opens her memoir with these words: "The thing you need to know about me is that I am George Corrigan's daughter, his only daughter."
Read more
She continues with an unabashed tribute to the first man in her life.
George Corrigan emerges as an outsized figure of immense good cheer and spirited disposition. A self-assured adman and former all-American lacrosse player (now part-time coach), he shines brightly, and his daughter appears content to live in his reflected glory.
Kelly considers herself lucky for this great touchstone in her life, and her dad's can-do spirit becomes her greatest asset when she's diagnosed with breast cancer as a young mother. It is her dad's pluck and resolve that will see her through the oncoming battles — including the realization that her "cure" will mean the end of her ability to bear children and her dream of having a large family of her own.
Though Kelly writes of her husband and daughters, her mother and her brothers, it is her father's love that sustains her. And so, readers fear for her when she reveals that George has been diagnosed with cancer, too. It is at this nadir, facing not only her own mortality but her father's as well, that Kelly finally begins to emerge as a survivor — a wife, a mother, and more herself. Yet, she will always be her father's daughter.
(Spring 2008 Selection)
Liked The Middle Place? Here’s where I’d start.
These suit anyone who liked The Middle Place. Sign in and mark a few books for picks shaped around your own taste.
-
Ill-Equipped for a Life of Sex: A Memoir Shares memoir, nonfiction, biography -
Promise Me: How a Sister's Love Launched the Global Movement to End Breast Cancer Shares memoir, nonfiction, biography -
The Gift of an Ordinary Day: A Mother's Memoir Shares memoir, nonfiction, biography -
Comfort: A Journey Through Grief Shares memoir, nonfiction, biography
“People who read The Middle Place tend to reach for these next.”
“If you want more of the same (biography about cancer), start with these.”
“If it was the memoir that hooked you, try one of these.”
“These start from a similar idea, even if they go somewhere else with it.”
-
Eating Pomegranates: A Memoir of Mothers, Daughters, and the BRCA Gene
-
Don't Bet against Me!: Beating the Odds Against Breast Cancer and in Life
-
The Council of Dads: My Daughters, My Illness, and the Men Who Could Be Me
-
Before I Say Goodbye: Recollections and Observations from One Woman's Final Year