I make my return to CBR after a long absence due to wrapping up grad school, graduating, and recently starting a new job, so there have been a bunch of life transitions that left me both reading less and also having much less will to write reviews. I contemplated just waiting until January and trying again then, but I am countering my perfectionism and think it’s better to get back into the habit now instead of putting it off. This job is going to be very, very busy, so it’s not like there’s going to be a perfect time to do things. Anyway, I got an e-reader yesterday because I love physical books the most, but I have a 2 hour commute during which I frequently have to stand, and hauling around the thick and heavy books I often like to read, plus a computer, was causing me back strain. Now I have joined the ranks of having a bunch of books in one light package and the first one I worked my way through was Strangers.
I remember reading the Modern Love article that this was based on and so have been interested in picking up this memoir (I am also not immune in the slightest to NYC based buzzed about books). I like a memoir and this was a very zippy, propulsive read. I got through it in an evening last night, my commute to work, and then the last couple of pages during today’s down time. It’s highly readable, the prose is spare but packs a lot of emotion in, and Burden seems very honest about what she went through in a way that made me like the book more than if it had been overtly trying to settle some sort of score or hide things. Memoir can be such a fraught genre and I appreciated the way in which she tried to complicate the narrative for her husband and not simply demonize him. I also appreciated the ways in which she worked in discussions of the class and gender pressures on her to conform and be silent, and how stereotypes led to her being blamed for her husband leaving. I am a big mid-century history person so getting to know more about Babe Paley’s family dynamics was also very interesting to me.
I am giving this three stars because while it was very readable and I think it was solid overall, I also don’t think that it’s going to stick with me forever. It’s a very specific glimpse into a privileged world and while she has a great ability to speak to the emotional experience of being abruptly left by your husband, there was still somewhat of a remove for me, something that I didn’t totally connect with on a deep level, that’s hard to put into words. It could just be that I’ve lived such a different life, although I am very sympathetic to the awful time she went through, and I’m glad that I did read this. I do think that this is definitely worthwhile, if only to see what all the talk has been about, it’s a fast read with a compelling narrative voice.
