A review by kricketa
Split: A Memoir of Divorce by Suzanne Finnamore
4.0
Reread- September 2021
Finnamore's references to cross-dressing or tendency to lapse into offensive accents did not age well. (More accurate: were also offensive on the first read but I didn't notice because I'm a ding-dong.) I don't relate to her or her method of dealing with adversity as much as I did in my 20s, which is weird because now I am the age she was when she got divorced. That said I still enjoy the crafting of her lovely sentences.
First read- August 2012
i like to read about marriage and marriages, even bad ones. but it took me a few years to pick this one up because i loved suzanne finnamore's novels, which seemed to be based on her life, and it made me upset that her husband wound up being a doofus. still. what better day to begin a book about a divorce than my 6 year wedding anniversary? (my husband is used to me; didn't even bat an eye.)
ANYWAY. finnamore throws us right in the water by beginning mere seconds before her husband tells her he's out, and launches us into a nearly-flawless account of all her feelings and reactions, reasonable and unreasonable. even better, they're hysterical. i don't know who i love more, suzanne's mom, bunny, or her friend christian. they're the people i used to read about in memoirs and think "nobody's friends are really like that, are they? breezing into your life when you need them with exactly the perfect thing to say." and then i met this woman named kat who cuts my hair, so now i know these people really do exist. where was i?
i love that the ending isn't full of platitudes and lessons learned, as i feared from reading the book flap. sure, suzanne learns some things. she might be ready for love again someday. but nothing's perfect. it is what it is.
the one thing that bothered me is how much she seemed to see this coming (cocktail napkin, etc) without actually opening her eyes to see it coming. but she freely admits that she did this. again, nobody's perfect.
every single WORD in this memoir seems as though it has been hand-carved exactly for the occasion. it has ruined me for other books, which all seem plodding and clunky in comparison.
Finnamore's references to cross-dressing or tendency to lapse into offensive accents did not age well. (More accurate: were also offensive on the first read but I didn't notice because I'm a ding-dong.) I don't relate to her or her method of dealing with adversity as much as I did in my 20s, which is weird because now I am the age she was when she got divorced. That said I still enjoy the crafting of her lovely sentences.
First read- August 2012
i like to read about marriage and marriages, even bad ones. but it took me a few years to pick this one up because i loved suzanne finnamore's novels, which seemed to be based on her life, and it made me upset that her husband wound up being a doofus. still. what better day to begin a book about a divorce than my 6 year wedding anniversary? (my husband is used to me; didn't even bat an eye.)
ANYWAY. finnamore throws us right in the water by beginning mere seconds before her husband tells her he's out, and launches us into a nearly-flawless account of all her feelings and reactions, reasonable and unreasonable. even better, they're hysterical. i don't know who i love more, suzanne's mom, bunny, or her friend christian. they're the people i used to read about in memoirs and think "nobody's friends are really like that, are they? breezing into your life when you need them with exactly the perfect thing to say." and then i met this woman named kat who cuts my hair, so now i know these people really do exist. where was i?
i love that the ending isn't full of platitudes and lessons learned, as i feared from reading the book flap. sure, suzanne learns some things. she might be ready for love again someday. but nothing's perfect. it is what it is.
the one thing that bothered me is how much she seemed to see this coming (cocktail napkin, etc) without actually opening her eyes to see it coming. but she freely admits that she did this. again, nobody's perfect.
every single WORD in this memoir seems as though it has been hand-carved exactly for the occasion. it has ruined me for other books, which all seem plodding and clunky in comparison.