'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:
How many loved your moments of glad grace, 5 And loved your beauty with love false or true; But one man loved the pilgrim soul in you, And loved the sorrows of your changing face. And bending down beside the glowing bars, Murmur, a little sadly, how love fled 10 And paced upon the mountains overhead. 'As a writer, Wearing is all luscious texture and running narrative.' — The Globe and MailMoments 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 docum. How many loved your moments of glad grace, And loved your beauty with love false or true, But one man loved the pilgrim soul in you, And loved the sorrows of your changing face; And bending down beside the glowing bars, Murmur, a little sadly, how Love fled. And paced upon the mountains overhead. 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.
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 humor, 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.
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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.
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.
How Many Have Loved Your Moments Of Glad Grace
Moments Of Glad Grace A Memoir
Alison would be happy to attend the last hour of your book club meeting and join in the discussion via Zoom or Skype! Simply send an invitation to hello@alisonwearing.com with a couple of date/time options.
For a book club guide, click here: www.ecwpress.com/blogs/book-clubs/moments-of-glad-grace-book-club-guide
INTERESTED IN MEMOIR WRITING?
Alison’s 12-week memoir writing program can help you transform your personal writing into memoir.
Are you part of a book club or are you looking to start one? Moments of Glad Graceby Alison Wearing makes a great book club pick! In this memoir, Alison accompanies her father, in the early stages of Parkinson’s Disease, on a trip to Dublin to indulge his love of genealogy. Through wit and humor, Alison learns to come to terms with her father’s mortality and realizes that it’s the unremarkable moments that are the most important ones.
Book Club Questions
- Moments of Glad Grace is a memoir that looks at the ties that bind us to family and that considers what is precious to us when the clock is running down on how much time we have left with those we love. Within the specifics of her own relationship with her beloved father, the author manages to create a universal story we can all relate to. How do you think she achieves this? What are the points that resonated most for you?
- The memoir is a love letter to Wearing’s father, but it also a story of falling in love with a new city. We have all experienced falling in love with a new place. Where has this happened for you? What was it about the place that spoke to you? Did the experience change how you looked at home?
- Wearing works to convey important insights through humour. Think of her ongoing struggles with “gynaecological” research and how she balances the humour of this with the poignancy of why she is sticking to it – that it is important to her father. Do you like this as a writing device? If so, why do you think it is successful?
- Wearing has chosen to structure her memoir as a daily diary. Do you think this enhances the immediacy of her writing?
- Joe, Wearing’s father, is interested in gathering the facts of his ancestors’ existence – births, deaths, marriages – while Wearing herself is interested in finding ways of putting flesh on those facts – of getting to the truth of their lives through story. Which camp do you fall into? Do you believe that factual truth is the core necessity of understanding the past? Or do you believe that it is important to dig beneath the facts to find the “ghosts” of those who came before us, to find the motivation and the story that underlay their actions?
- Soon the father-daughter week together comes to an end and both return to their everyday lives. As do we. What were your favourite parts of this story? What are the ‘moments of glad grace’ that you have had with your own parents?
Download the completeMoments of Glad GraceBook Club Guidehere.
Listen to Alison Wearing talk about her experience with her father and read the opening chapter here.