Something Like Beautiful: One Single Mother's Story (2009) - Plot & Excerpts
I wanted to like this book. I really did. Although miss bandele writes beautifully throughout this memoir, the chapters do not seem to flow together into a readable account of what happened. There are some places in the book where I am still unclear about what exactly took place because she completely lost me in unrelated statistics and prose. Then there are some crucial details at the heart of the story that she never tells. She never fully discloses how she gets out of the abusive relationship or what really ended it between her and Rashid. There is no 'story' here, just a disjointed collection of rants and journal entries that lack an editor and the thread to pull together the whole story and make it into a readable, coherent account.And my criticisms here are the same as they were in her first book, "The Prisoner's Wife". Although I am not judging bandele for her decision to pursue a romantic relationship with a prisoner, I am judging the way she chooses a "why me" attitude throughout her books. She chose to marry someone who was incarcerated for life. The possibilities of him getting out were slim to none (most prisoners with life sentences DO NOT get parole), and the possibility always existed of him being transferred to another prison. However, these are the realities of the life that SHE chose to take on as a prisoner's wife. And although she did not plan on becoming a parent, she knew that in order to do so, she would have to be a single one because obviously her husband isn't able to be there. The fact that bandele may have felt as if her life would be free from the difficulties and challenges that hundreds of other people with incarcerated spouses face strikes to the illogic at the heart of this book. It seems that she could not handle the pressures of being a prisoners wife, and felt guilty about this. While I applaud bandele for having the heart to tell her story, I probably will not read another one of her memoirs. I received this as an advanced read from Harper Collins, so here is my review. I thought this book was written well, but it is more or less an outpouring of the authors feelings and emotions and doesn't really flow as a story. I was impressed with how real and open she was and I found her history fascinating. The whole time I read however, I was wanting to find out more details. I wanted to know how she married her husband, what exactly lead up to the deportation order, how he reacted to her leaving, some of the details of visiting him, and how she went from their break-up to the next phases of her life. I wanted to hear "the story", and not just her emotions surrounding each event! Possibly, I would have felt differently about this book if I had more in common with the author, but her life is very different from mine and because of this it was intriguing, but the writing was not detailed enough for me to really relate. I think I would like her poetry and because she writes well, would be interested in reading another by her.
What do You think about Something Like Beautiful: One Single Mother's Story (2009)?
I found this book to be very honest and inspiring.
—gladys_r_2
