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A review by ncrabb
The Rest of Me by Katie Marsh
4.0
I don't even know how to begin this in the hope that it will draw you to the book. I've never read anything from this woman before, but if I can find additional books of hers, I'll give them a read.
Alex Fox has her act together in ways that would dazzle even the most jaded among us. She is highly organized, a list maker of epic stamina. She's the go-to woman at work who has the answers. She is self-contained, self-reliant, and very much in charge.
Those attributes were necessary when her husband, Sam, developed kidney disease and was rendered nearly helpless. Alex and her two daughters worked to hold the house together. Then they discovered that Alex was a suitable kidney donor for Sam, and soon thereafter, he was recovering nicely with her kidney. But Alex wasn't recovering so well, and the family dynamic shifted in a mammoth way when Sam became the healthy vibrant one and Alex struggled to recover for months.
But this is so much more than a book about shifting family roles. Why had Alex been so intent on being the go-to woman, the organized one the tough one? What was it in her past that made her thus? And then there's ten-year-old Izzy. She loves soccer, and she's good at it. She has a solid chance of getting into a prestigious soccer club if her parents approve. But life at home is anything but good since the kidney operations. Mom finds herself out of work, and neither parent can cross the ever-widening chasm to one another. Worse still, things at school are grim, too. Izzy's former friend has turned on her and, with help from other girls in school, has turned Izzy's life into something worse than hell.
These plots are so well written and narrated that you will long remember this book. Marsh taps into emotions you won't even realize she can touch. I literally shed tears in the climactic portion of the book near the end and you very well may also. This is excellent writing at its best, and you'll ponder the impact of family role changes and of the past on the present. I have no idea where I picked up the recommendation for this, but I'm grateful I paid attention to that recommendation.
Alex Fox has her act together in ways that would dazzle even the most jaded among us. She is highly organized, a list maker of epic stamina. She's the go-to woman at work who has the answers. She is self-contained, self-reliant, and very much in charge.
Those attributes were necessary when her husband, Sam, developed kidney disease and was rendered nearly helpless. Alex and her two daughters worked to hold the house together. Then they discovered that Alex was a suitable kidney donor for Sam, and soon thereafter, he was recovering nicely with her kidney. But Alex wasn't recovering so well, and the family dynamic shifted in a mammoth way when Sam became the healthy vibrant one and Alex struggled to recover for months.
But this is so much more than a book about shifting family roles. Why had Alex been so intent on being the go-to woman, the organized one the tough one? What was it in her past that made her thus? And then there's ten-year-old Izzy. She loves soccer, and she's good at it. She has a solid chance of getting into a prestigious soccer club if her parents approve. But life at home is anything but good since the kidney operations. Mom finds herself out of work, and neither parent can cross the ever-widening chasm to one another. Worse still, things at school are grim, too. Izzy's former friend has turned on her and, with help from other girls in school, has turned Izzy's life into something worse than hell.
These plots are so well written and narrated that you will long remember this book. Marsh taps into emotions you won't even realize she can touch. I literally shed tears in the climactic portion of the book near the end and you very well may also. This is excellent writing at its best, and you'll ponder the impact of family role changes and of the past on the present. I have no idea where I picked up the recommendation for this, but I'm grateful I paid attention to that recommendation.