The Middle Place (2008)

I really enjoyed this memoir about a woman reflecting on her experience in the Middle Place -- sandwiched between caring for her own children and occasionally her parents. The author alternates between reflecting on relationship and history with the family she was born into, especially her father, and dealing with the with the period in 2004-2005 when both she and her father were fighting cancer simultaneously.

Despite the serious subject matter, Kelly Corrigan is funny and lovable about reflecting on a challenging time in her life. ( )

A wonderfully written, touching memoir about families and crisis and beating the odds. The author is my age so her childhood pop culture references are particularly fun and meaningful to me. More than anything, I enjoyed this book because the goodness of her childhood and family is so good that it made me happy just to read about it. Her honesty is refreshing and her writing is real. ( )

The Middle Place by Kelly Corrigan is really an ode to the author’s dad, thinly disguised as a memoir. It is also a “tale of two cancers”, both hers and (all three of) his. It also is about family, marriage, “coming of age”...or not. I found the cover of this book to be confusing; a young girl sort of airborne, maybe jumping on a trampoline? I really didn’t know what it was about (maybe a story about being a middle child in the family?), but (being a first born) I wasn’t drawn to find out. I passed this book by many times before I finally was handed a copy by a work colleague who said “you have to read this!”…so I did. What is great about this book is the author’s honest description of her feelings surrounding not only her her cancer, but her childbirthing, her marriage as well. It became a book that I couldn’t wait to get back to reading every time I put it down, so that I could see what would happen next. By the end, I really liked the book... and Kelly Corrigan. ( )

Great coming-of-age memoir from Kelly Corrigan, a mother of two young daughters who was diagnosed with breast cancer in her late thirties. She describes the "middle place" as one in which she is both a parent and a child who still needs her parents, especially her sports-oriented father with whom she shares a great relationship. Chapters tend to alternate with current stories of being a cancer patient and survivor along with stories of growing up with her two older brothers in Pennsylvania in the 70s. Funny, real, and honest! ( )

I really enjoyed this memoir. It describes Kelly’s battle with breast cancer but also talks about that middle place in your life where you are both a child and a parent, and has a lot of stories from her childhood up to present date. Really beautifully written. ( )