When We Were the Kennedys: A Memoir from Mexico, Maine

by Monica Wood

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Biography & Autobiography. Family & Relationships. History. Nonfiction. HTML:*Winner of the Sarton Memoir Award. "[A] marvel of storytelling, layered and rich . . . an account of one family's grief, love, and resilience" (Maine Sunday Telegram).* Mexico, Maine, 1963: The Wood family is much like its close, Catholic, immigrant neighbors, all dependent on the fathers' wages from the Oxford Paper Company. But when Dad suddenly dies on his way to work, Mum and the four deeply connected Wood girls are set adrift. When We Were the Kennedys is the story of how a family, a town, and then a nation mourns and finds the strength to move on. "Intimate but expansive . . . A tender memoir of a very different time."�??O, The Oprah Magazine "Every few years, a memoir comes along that revitalizes the form . . . With generous, precise, and unsentimental prose, Monica Wood brilliantly achieves this . . . When We Were the Kennedys is a deeply moving gem!"�??Andre Dubus III, #1 New York Times bestselling author "On her own terms, wry and empathetic, Wood locates the melodies in the aftershock of sudden loss."�??The Boston Globe "This is an extraordinarily moving book, so carefully and artfully realized, about loss and life and love. Monica Wood displays all her superb novelistic skills in this breathtaking, evocative new memoir. Wow."�??Ken Burns, filmmaker "A gorgeous, gripping memoir. I don't know that I've ever pulled so hard for a family. When We Were the Kennedys captures a shimmering mill-town world on the edge of oblivion, in a voice that brims with hope, feeling, and wonder. The book humbles and soars."�??Mike Paterniti, New York Times best… (more)

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The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion (DetailMuse)
DetailMuse: Both are beautiful explorations of magical thinking during grief -- Didion's in reaction to the death of her husband in older age; Wood's in reaction to the death of her father in childhood.

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I read this book, because I heard Monica Wood speak about this book.

"This is a memoir, the truth as I recall it", Wood reminds her readers in her Author's note. All the better in my opinion, because the result is a warm, loving description of how she and her family coped with the loss of their father, husband and brother -in- law. It is as if Monica Wood is sitting close to you telling her story. She is able to see the humor in some situation, despite the enormous tragedy.
This book reminded me that there is always hope. (

)

Marietje.Halbertsma | Jan 9, 2022 |

This was a very interesting story.. The title is what caught me. The book is a memoir of a young
nine year old girl and her family.

It takes place in the late 1950's and early 1960's. During the presidency of Kennedy. It takes place in a small paper mill town in up state Main. It drew me to it since some of my family worked the paper mill in up state New York. I found it interesting to learn how the mill worked and the process of making paper. Not a easy job back then.

Monica young nine year old tells the story of the day her father died and how it affected her family.
It was not easy for her mom who is left with 4 daughters. It tells how life goes on even when you question why this happened as a child will do. How they carry on. They life in a town where everyone one knows everyone and still don't really.

The story is of sorrow, grief, heart break, and love. How life still must go one and family sticks together.

Well worth the read. (

)

dian429 | Apr 21, 2021 |

One of the best memoirs I've read this year. Monica Wood reminds me a little of myself- she also lost her father when she was very young, grew up in a Catholic family, went to Catholic school in the 60's and played many of the same games I played as a child. But the similarity stops there. She had several siblings and aunts who helped her cope, a priest uncle whom she was very fond of who took her places, visited her school regularly and helped her widowed mother. Somehow, amazingly to me, her mother was able to remain a stay-at-home mother after the loss of her husband. They were not a wealthy family. Monica's father worked at the local paper mill. They weren't homeowners but rented their apartment from some finicky fussy landlords. And yet they managed. Through the help of Uncle "Father Bob", her friend Denise and Denise's family, and Monica's much older sister Anne. The story takes place in Mexico, Maine (and yes, I'd never heard of a Mexico in Maine before either) in the early 1960's. The title When We Were the Kennedys refers to the parallel experience the first family and country had when President Kennedy was suddenly assassinated. A very well written book, funny at times. Highly recommend. (

)

homeschoolmimzi | Dec 1, 2020 |

1963, Mexico, Maine. The Wood family is much like its close, Catholic immigrant neighbors, all dependent on a father's wages from the Oxford Paper Company. Then Dad suddenly dies on his way to work, setting Mum and the four deeply-connected Wood girls adrift -- just as the nation loses its handsome, young, Catholic president.

This memoir covers a year or so of the author's life starting at age 9. She captures all the emotions that she and her family went through while trying to go on with their lives when their entire world changed. This was a caring family but they had their difficulties with the mother suffering from depression for a while. Their uncle helped for a while until he had a breakdown. This was a sweet story of good people who pulled together to get their lives back on track. (

)

gaylebutz | Jun 29, 2019 |

Memoir that takes place in Mexico Maine about the author, and her family when her father dies unexpectedly when she is in 3rd grade. The location and time period attracted me to this book. It was very interesting hearing about the lives of factory worker families and how the close knit neighborhood families were always there for each other (

)

NancyJak | Mar 16, 2019 |

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Awards

Goodreads Choice Awards (Nominee – Memoir & Autobiography – 2012)

Maine Literary Award (Winner – Memoir – 2013)

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2012-07-10

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Epigraph

This Is What Was Bequeathed Us
by Gregory Orr
This is what was bequeathed us: /
This earth the beloved left, /
And, leaving, /
Left to us. /

No other world /
But this one: /
Willows and the river, /
And the factory /
With its black smokestacks. /

No other shore, only this bank /
On which the living gather. /
No meaning but what we find here. /
No purpose but what we make. /

That, and the beloved's clear instructions: /

Turn me into song; sing me awake.

Dedication

First words

In Mexico, Maine, where I grew up, you couldn't find a single Mexican. -Prologue, My Mexico

The morning of my father's death begins like all other mornings: my mother stirring oatmeal at the stove, cats twining around her legs, parakeet jabbering on her shoulder. -Chapter 1, Morning

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Canonical DDC/MDS

813.54

Canonical LCC

PS3573.O5948

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▾Book descriptions

Biography & Autobiography. Family & Relationships. History. Nonfiction. HTML:Winner of the Sarton Memoir Award. "[A] marvel of storytelling, layered and rich . . . an account of one family's grief, love, and resilience" (Maine Sunday Telegram).

Mexico, Maine, 1963: The Wood family is much like its close, Catholic, immigrant neighbors, all dependent on the fathers' wages from the Oxford Paper Company. But when Dad suddenly dies on his way to work, Mum and the four deeply connected Wood girls are set adrift. When We Were the Kennedys is the story of how a family, a town, and then a nation mourns and finds the strength to move on.

"Intimate but expansive . . . A tender memoir of a very different time."�??O, The Oprah Magazine

"Every few years, a memoir comes along that revitalizes the form . . . With generous, precise, and unsentimental prose, Monica Wood brilliantly achieves this . . . When We Were the Kennedys is a deeply moving gem!"�??Andre Dubus III, #1 New York Times bestselling author

"On her own terms, wry and empathetic, Wood locates the melodies in the aftershock of sudden loss."�??The Boston Globe

"This is an extraordinarily moving book, so carefully and artfully realized, about loss and life and love. Monica Wood displays all her superb novelistic skills in this breathtaking, evocative new memoir. Wow."�??Ken Burns, filmmaker

"A gorgeous, gripping memoir. I don't know that I've ever pulled so hard for a family. When We Were the Kennedys captures a shimmering mill-town world on the edge of oblivion, in a voice that brims with hope, feeling, and wonder. The book humbles and soars."�??Mike Paterniti, New York Times best

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