Review #48: Falling Apart in One Piece by Stacy Morrison

Title: Falling Apart in One Piece, one optimist's journey through the hell of divorce

Author: Stacy Morrison, editor in chief of Redbook magazine

Format: ARC

Genre: Memoir

ISBN: 978-1-4165-9556-4

Publisher: Simon and Schuster

Price/Pages: $26.00/288 pages

Release Date: March

My Review and Description:

Divorce, you say? Is there something you are not telling us?, you may be saying to yourself when reading this.

I would respond. No. No secrets here. I am just a fan of well written memoirs. I believe we all have a story to tell and if you can tell yours and have others learn from it, then you've done a good job. Stacy Morrison does just that. She wrote an excellent memoir not only about her divorce but of her struggles with being a new mom, a single parent, a busy professional, a homeowner, a daughter, and a friend to her ex-husband.

Her story is similar to many. Extremely educated and an ambitious professional, Morrison had very exact ideas of what she wanted to do and where she wanted to go. She takes us on a journey of her life in the world of magazine publishing and her climb to the top. While becoming more and more successful she discovers love and eventually marriage.

The life she creates with her husband is envious and what seems effortless, known to her friends as the least married like couple out there. A child would make it close to perfection.

But ten years in with a five month old baby and a new house in Brooklyn her husband tells her he is done. Just like that. She is left devastated, furious and knee deep in navigating single motherhood and solving years old poor plumbing in her fabulous new home.

The journey she takes after that moment is full of definite hard times and roads that seem long and unending. As a new mom, I would gasp at some of the struggles she had to go through alone with her son; the unexpected accidents, the desire to keep some normalcy in his life, the battles in communicating with her ex-husband over his needs.

But even as a woman, she writes with such unflinching honesty that no matter where you are at as a reader; married, single, dating- you really understand every emotion she goes through. Her intellect also really shines through in her writing style; honest yet well thought out, timed, and constructed. As I read, I felt that she wanted to tell her story a certain way, with a particular beat to it and time line. It would be easy to sum it up with he left me and I cried but she really goes deep in examining her issues that she brought to the table, her parent's interesting marriage and her friend's relationships.

I learned a lot from this book actually and I was surprised that it had such depth and heart. I would recommend it for a book club choice. In fact, my book club is tomorrow and I am thinking of bringing it along for my pick (that and Little Bee!). It has so much to offer as far as learning. Questions that popped in my mind while reading it include: Do I take my husband for granted? Do I manage my personal life like I do my professional life? Is my home a business too? Have a talked about happiness with my husband lately? How has having a child changed us? Are we happy with those changes?

It definitely got me thinking a bit. So because of that, I think it would be a good choice for discussion.

Rating: 5 stars/6 stars

As a memoir fan, I would give this book a solid 5, definitely worth recommending and passing along to those married or in a relationship in your life. Single readers would enjoy it as well but I think overall it would be most relatable to those in a relationship.

Stacy Morrison is the editor in chief of Redbook magazine. You can check out that website and also her own here and here.

Thanks for stopping by and as always, Happy Reading!

red headed book child