Book Review: The Middle Place

The Middle Place by Kelly Corrigan is a memoir about a young mother’s journey with breast cancer that coincides with her father’s journey with bladder cancer. A father she very much depends on to validate all that she is or does. Even more so, it’s a story about what she calls “the middle place”, the time when parenthood and childhood overlap. While I can’t relate much to this notion of a “middle place”, there are words in this book that parallel the life of any mother with young children. Sentiment aside, the main reason to read this book is because it IS funny. Regardless of whether you find her antics enduring or childish, she has wit. She takes you back to “Guess” jeans and “Jessie’s Girl” right up to “bioflavonoids” and “Harold and the Purple Crayon”. Most likely I’ll read her next book, Lift, due out early next year.