Author: Molly Wizenberg
Genre: Memoir
Publisher: Abrams Press
Publication Date: 8/4/2020
Book Description: From a bestselling memoirist, a thoughtful and provocative story of changing identity, complex sexuality, and enduring family relationships
At age 36, while serving on a jury, author Molly Wizenberg found herself drawn to a female attorney she hardly knew. Married to a man for nearly a decade and mother to a toddler, Wizenberg tried to return to her life as she knew it, but something inside her had changed irrevocably. Instead, she would discover that the trajectory of our lives is rarely as smooth or as logical as we’d like to believe.
Like many of us, Wizenberg had long understood sexual orientation as a stable part of ourselves: we’re “born this way.” Suddenly she realized that her story was more complicated. Who was she, she wondered, if something at her very core could change so radically? The Fixed Stars is a taut, electrifying memoir exploring timely and timeless questions about desire, identity, and the limits and possibilities of family. In honest and searing prose, Wizenberg forges a new path: through the murk of separation and divorce, coming out to family and friends, learning to co-parent a young child, and realizing a new vision of love. The result is a frank and moving story about letting go of rigid definitions and ideals that no longer fit, and learning instead who we really are.
Rating: 3 Stars
Review: Molly Wizenberg tells her story of coming out when she was married to her husband Brandon. She is a memoirist by trade, so her writing seems seamless and flows very well throughout the book.
When Molly is in her mid-thirties she is serving jury duty when she finds she has an attraction to a female attorney on the case. Even when the trial end, Molly cannot get this woman out of her mind. She is honest with her husband, and they are both very emotional during this conversation. This leads to therapy, trying an open marriage, and inevitably the demise of their marriage.
While she a writes a solid narrative, however, I never felt that we got all of her in this book. At times I thought it just skimmed the surface or maybe the prose was just a little superficial.
I understand it is her story to tell, and it was good, but when I read a memoir, I want to feel I have a complete understanding of this person. If you are fans of Glennon Doyle’s Untamed, this might a good comparable read.
Thank you NetGalley and Abrams Publishing for an Advanced Reader’s Copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
Obsessed Bookaholic 