Anyone who has ever had a strained maternal relationship, harbored a secret addiction, felt the unrelenting pressure of the sandwich generation or struggled to access God's grace through it all should read this beautifully pitched memoir. Slattery (The Grace to Grow
) writes of growing up with an emotionally distant mother and a father who eventually slid away into alcoholism. Pressured about her weight, Slattery became bulimic in high school and carried this devastating secret for years. Even after finding Christ in college, she continued to struggle with the cycle of weakness, capitulation and self-loathing until she began to heal with the help of a loving husband. Bits and pieces of the tense mother-daughter relationship thread through the story, until finally, her mother moves into the in-law apartment attached to her home, and Slattery gradually becomes her primary caregiver as her mother's health declines. The grace and insights that leak out over the final decade of their time together soften the harsh edges of Slattery's life story and bring the memoir to a gentle, satisfyingly redemptive close: “In God's economy, nothing in life goes to waste.” (Mar.)
