What would you do with a year?
Dominique Browning’s memoir, Slow Love,
explores what happens when an editor-in-chief loses her job and is forced to
reevaluate her attachments and general outlook on life.
Two facets of Slow Love may irk readers.
When Ms. Browning loses her job, she isn't in a dire financial situation. She mentions
she has spent years living frugally.
However, her relative frugality includes owning two homes and having
enough money to take a year off from work, except for freelance consulting jobs.
In my opinion, her financial security doesn’t change the
emotional impact of losing her job; someone with such an all-encompassing
career may have an even more difficult time accepting a job loss, because so
much of her self-worth was tied to that career.
I had a more difficult time understanding her dysfunctional relationship
with her legally separated boyfriend, Stroller.
I expected Slow Love to be an intensely personal journey, a breaking
down of personal perceptions, and I found an inordinate amount of time spent on
her relationship.
Browning’s memoir spoke to me on a visceral level. When she writes about playing the piano and
her relationship with music, her time in her garden, the tiny sea creatures in
the vastness of the ocean, her prose is achingly descriptive and evocative.
Towards the end of Slow Love, Browning states, “Stroller
doesn’t even come into my thoughts very often anymore.” I only wish he wasn’t such a force throughout
the majority of the memoir.
Join the BlogHer Book Club discussion on Dominique Browning's Slow Love!
If you haven't yet read the book, you can read an excerpt, meet the author, or share your opinions about shaking a toxic relationship.
This was a paid review for BlogHer Book Club.
I received a copy of Slow Love to read and review and was compensated for this post, but all the opinions expressed are my own.
This was a paid review for BlogHer Book Club.
I received a copy of Slow Love to read and review and was compensated for this post, but all the opinions expressed are my own.
The very idea of Stroller being a real person makes my skin crawl, but worse to me is the insane amount of pages that she devotes to him. Her love for her sons almost pales in comparison to the undeserved love that she has for Stroller.
ReplyDeleteI understand that it is her journey, and I don't want to judge it, because I guess she needed to work through that part of her life, too, but so much of the book focused on him :( I liked the parts without him much, much better.
ReplyDeleteI think I would expect it to be more about her as well. Though it wasn't what you expected did you still enjoy it?
ReplyDeleteThere were parts I really enjoyed. Also, it ended really beautifully, so my overall impression is more positive than I expected it to be in the middle of the book. Her writing is lovely, which draws me in; the relationship is just infuriating for so many reasons, and that tainted it for me a little. (But it's a quick read, so if you're interested, I would say it's worth it!)
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