Description
Book Synopsis'Life, like a poem, is a series of choices'
In her long-awaited debut memoir, You Could Make This Place Beautiful, award-winning poet Maggie Smith explores in lyrical vignettes the end of her marriage and the beginning of a surprising new life. With the spirit of reflection and empathy she's known for, Smith interweaves snapshots of a life with meditations on secrets, anger, forgiveness and narrative itself.
It is a story about a mother's fierce and constant love for her children, and a woman's love and regard for herself. Above all, this memoir is an argument for possibility. Smith reveals how, in the aftermath of loss, we can discover our power and make something new. Something beautiful.
Trade ReviewThis book is extraordinary -- ANN PATCHETT
This is a memoir of a woman who recommits to herself after heartbreak, but it's also a meditation on patriarchal power dynamics, a mother's love for her children and what that means in today's world and how to bet on yourself, even and especially when we're told not to. A balm for the soul and a rallying cry for the heart. * * Good Housekeeping * *
A composite of creativity, motherhood and determination * * New York Times * *
Rich in nuance and unrelenting in its honesty, Smith's memoir is a bittersweet study in both grief and joy * * TIME * *
[A] meditation on what it means to be a modern woman, this is as beautiful and lyrical as they come * * Red * *
Reminds you that you can [ . . . ] survive deep loss, sink into life's deep beauty, and constantly, constantly make yourself new -- GLENNON DOYLE
A poet's memoir . . . [Smith] has an uncanny ability to boil down giant ideas into tiny, dense sentences that are both playful and heartbreaking * * SHONDALAND * *
Smith turns to prose to chronicle the end of her marriage and the hard, beautiful work of loving and valuing herself * * PEOPLE * *
Smith confronts our collective desire for a clean narrative.
You Could Make This Place Beautiful shows a writer wondering why we use the narrative vocabulary we have to make sense of life's ups and downs. Smith breaks the fourth wall constantly in her memoir, calling out the real-life moments that feel too on the nose, evaluating the fallout of her husband's infidelity * * Vanity Fair * *
In this lightning bolt of a debut memoir, Maggie Smith gives us the truth of healing in form as much as story: getting through is no pretty, linear narrative. It's one chapter forward and five chapters back.
You Could Make This Place Beautiful gave me back a part of myself I thought was gone for good: the knowledge that beauty isn't something out there to find. It's in us -- MEGAN STIELSTRA, author of THE WRONG WAY TO SAVE YOUR LIFE
You Could Make This Place Beautiful is a sparklingly brilliant memoir-in-vignettes that only Maggie Smith could write. Yet this is a book for everyone - who among us has never had our world upended by the loss of a relationship? Maggie Smith's powerful mastery of language, and amazing ability to portray life in all its rich messiness, is on full display in this bold, brutally candid, and yes, beautiful, book -- ISAAC FITZGERALD, New York Times bestselling author of DIRTBAG, MASSACHUSETTS
A beautiful book . . . stunning * * Oprah Daily * *
Beautifully written . . . Smith should be just as celebrated for her prose * * Town and Country * *
Listen, you may not need me to tell you what you already know about the shining star that is Maggie Smith, but you can certainly add me to the chorus of those singing her praises about
You Could Make This Place Beautiful. Among her singular gifts as a writer are the way she swiftly brings her poetry to her prose; her willingness to show up to the page with aspirational levels of vulnerability, grace and joy; and a clarity of heart amid the heartbreak that together makes this a moving and gorgeous must read -- ELIZABETH CRANE, author of THIS STORY WILL CHANGE
This book is a gift -- LESLIE JAMISON, author of THE EMPATHY EXAMS
When personal tragedy strikes us, first we have to survive, then we have to begin healing. This exquisite book will help you do both. Reading Smith's memoir, I laughed and gasped and ugly-cried and somehow began to process ten years of my own pent-up, frozen grief. This book is nothing less than a cathartic miracle -- ALISSA NUTTING, author of MADE FOR LOVE
