"This is a wise, funny, and tender book, beautifully written and perfectly executed from first to last sentence. It's about a daughter and her ageing father, it's about genealogy and identity, it's about Ireland, but actually it's about how we love the ones we love.
Moments of Glad Grace is a travelogue of the heart.
It's a road you'll want to travel."
~ Yann Martel, author of Life of Pi
FROM THE BOOK JACKET:
Moments of Glad Grace is a moving and witty memoir of aging, familial love, and the hunt for roots and belonging. The story begins as a trip from Canada to Ireland in search of genealogical data and documents. Being eighty and in the early stages of Parkinson’s Disease, Joe invites his daughter Alison to come along as his research assistant, which might have worked very well had she any interest ― any at all ― in genealogy.
Very quickly, the father-daughter pilgrimage becomes more comical than fruitful, more of a bittersweet adventure than a studious mission. And rather than rigorous genealogy, their explorations move into the realm of family and forgiveness, the primal search for identity and belonging, and questions about responsibility to our ancestors and the extent to which we are shaped by the people who came before us.
Though continually bursting with humour, Moments of Glad Grace is ultimately a song of appreciation for the precious and limited time we have with our parents, the small moments we share, and the gifts of transcendence we might find there.
“Like a well-cut diamond, and life itself, this book has many facets that glitter, and sparkle, and illuminate in countless captivating ways...
Thoughtfully-organized, perceptive, witty and tender, leavened by humour, and exquisitely written, Moments of Glad Grace is as finely-honed a piece of work as I have read in a while.”
Full review:
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PLEASE NOTE: ECW Press offers a free e-book version AND a discount on the audiobook with proof of purchase of the paper book. Details here.
“Wearing — whose sprightly, charming and honest 2013 memoir of growing up with a gay dad garnered critical acclaim and several prize nominations — has done it again.
This is a well-written book that celebrates love and maturity, wisdom and forgiveness, and the hard-earned peace that occurs when you have the courage to pass through heartfelt honesty to the other side of tragedy, loss and sorrow. Highly recommended.”
“ONE OF THE 19 BOOKS YOU MUST READ THIS SUMMER.
The good-humoured and funny pages of Moments of Glad Grace...are propelled by a sweetly expressed awareness of how brief a life we share with our loved ones.”
“Moments of Glad Grace is an endearing delight.”
ANATOMY OF AN AUDIOBOOK
Alison narrated the audiobook versions of Moments of Glad Grace and Confessions of a Fairy’s Daughter, and recorded a few short behind-the-scenes videos of the process.
“In the end, this is a memoir at once heartfelt and hilarious. It’s about the ever-changing nature of the parent-child relationship which, if we’re lucky, is peppered and dolloped with notes of love and nostalgia. I loved it.”
“Joe is a tender, triumphant hero, a formerly closeted gay man who now celebrates his sexuality with admirable enthusiasm. He’s hilarious, and you can feel Wearing’s love for him in every page. Wearing’s own evolution is what makes the book more than just sentimental, however. Slowly, she begins to understand her complicated relationship with Joe, the legacy of her lineage, and the importance of small moments in the making of who we are.”
“Dancing between hilarity and the poignancy of a last sojourn with her father, Alison Wearing once again reveals herself as a sharp and tender observer of this mortal coil we call life.
Moments of Glad Grace is a journey you won’t want to miss.”
BOOK CLUBS
For a book club guide, click the image below:
PODCAST INTERVIEW
The Reframe Your Life podcast explores the stories and topics that have lead to change and transformation in our lives. The podcast focuses on bringing authors and speakers who are sharing powerful stories that have shaped their lives, and using storytelling as a way to make sense of the world around us and to reclaim what is true in our lives.
INTERESTED IN MEMOIR WRITING?
Alison’s 12-week memoir writing program can help you transform your personal writing into memoir.