Right off the bat, I’m going to tell you I read this book with a huge amount of skepticism. Why? Because, I’ve been burned before in the memoir genre (can you say, Three Cups of Tea or Million Little Pieces). Not to mention, if you think about it, there has to be a certain amount of ego and/or self-centeredness when writing a memoir. After all, you’re writing because you think there’s a part of your life that is so interesting others will plunk down money to read about it. So the question becomes does the story compel you enough or move you enough to make the time reading it overcome the distaste over what may be self aggrandizement and/or down-right lies.
An Invisible Thread, our January book club pick, barely crosses that threshold. It does so because while I was not a huge fan of “Miss Laura” I really liked Maurice and I was vested in what happened to him. Now before you jump on me about about not liking Miss Laura, reread my first paragraph above because Miss Laura falls into that self aggrandizement trap. On several occasions throughout the book we have to read her Oh shucks, it was nothing attitude or as she puts it, “Whenever I hear someone tell me how lucky Maurice is to have met me, I have to stop them and correct them. The truth is that the lucky one is me.” And she puts it that way throughout the book.Though I’m not sure she really believes that, it’s the truth. Without Maurice she’d have no story to tell because as a person, I didn’t enjoy her story as she pisses me off.
Why? Less than four years into their relationship, she dropped Maurice like a hot potato when a man came into her life. When the chance for her dreams of family and a house in the suburbs came into view, she chose that over Maurice. Sure she likes to justify that by claiming, Maurice needed to go on his “hero’s journey.” Really? It had nothing to do with the fact that when he needed you the most, during his late teen years, you slowly and deliberately cut him from your life because your husband didn’t want him in your home? That your husband bullied you like your father, and you let him because this “friend” wasn’t important enough to you? It all sounded like a huge rationalization to me because she was afraid to take that last step in their relationship and assume guardianship of a teenage boy who was living on the streets.
What saved the story for me was finally getting closure with regard to Maurice and his family both in the form of his epilogue (though it mirrored what Miss Laurie already shared earlier in the book) and the pictures at the end! Those saved the nagging doubts that lingered in the back of my brain with regard to the veracity of the story. Honestly, upon seeing those and reading Maurice’s epilogue, I realized there was a lost opportunity for this book. It should have been their memoir, written by both of them, in almost a she-said, he-said style. Oh well.
Anyway, at only 275 pages and a few hours to read, it’s a good story (if you can get past Miss Laurie), uplifting and worth your time.