Flesh & Blood: Reflections on Infertility, Family, and Creating a Bountiful Life: A Memoir
Oct 2021 · Sold by Algonquin Books
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320
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About this ebook
Honest, warm, and witty, this memoir reads like a chat with a dear friend sharing her insight and taking us along as she heals. Complete with family stories over cocktails and a praying mantis named Claude.
“I drive and say to myself, if I am dying, if this is how I die, then this is how I die.” When N. West Moss finds herself bleeding uncontrollably in the middle of a writing class, she manages to drive herself to the nearest hospital. Doctors are baffled, but eventually a diagnosis—uterine hemangioma—is rendered and a hysterectomy is scheduled. In prose both lyrical and unsparing, Moss takes us along through illness, relapse, and recovery. And as her thoughts turn to her previous struggles with infertility, she reflects on kin and kinship and on what it means to leave a legacy.
Moss’s wise, droll voice and limitless curiosity lift this narrative beyond any narrow focus. Among her interests: yellow fever, good cocktails, the history of New Orleans, and, always, the natural world, including the praying mantis in her sunroom whom she names Claude. And we learn about the inspiring women in Moss’s family—her mother, her grandmother, and her great-grandmother—as she sorts out her feelings that this line will end with her. But Moss discovers that there are ways besides having children to make a mark, and that grief is not a stopping place but a companion that travels along with us through everything, even happiness.
A remarkably honest memoir about heartache and healing, Flesh & Blood opens up a conversation with the millions of women who live with infertility and loss.
“I drive and say to myself, if I am dying, if this is how I die, then this is how I die.” When N. West Moss finds herself bleeding uncontrollably in the middle of a writing class, she manages to drive herself to the nearest hospital. Doctors are baffled, but eventually a diagnosis—uterine hemangioma—is rendered and a hysterectomy is scheduled. In prose both lyrical and unsparing, Moss takes us along through illness, relapse, and recovery. And as her thoughts turn to her previous struggles with infertility, she reflects on kin and kinship and on what it means to leave a legacy.
Moss’s wise, droll voice and limitless curiosity lift this narrative beyond any narrow focus. Among her interests: yellow fever, good cocktails, the history of New Orleans, and, always, the natural world, including the praying mantis in her sunroom whom she names Claude. And we learn about the inspiring women in Moss’s family—her mother, her grandmother, and her great-grandmother—as she sorts out her feelings that this line will end with her. But Moss discovers that there are ways besides having children to make a mark, and that grief is not a stopping place but a companion that travels along with us through everything, even happiness.
A remarkably honest memoir about heartache and healing, Flesh & Blood opens up a conversation with the millions of women who live with infertility and loss.
Honest, warm, and witty, this memoir reads like a chat with a dear friend sharing her insight and taking us along as she heals. Complete with family stories over cocktails and a praying mantis named Claude.
“I drive and say to myself, if I am dying, if this is how I die, then this is how I die.”...
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Ratings and reviews
1 review
Andrea Stoeckel
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November 27, 2021
“Happiness is an act of courage”- author “The past is never dead. It’s not even past”- Falkner I was stunned by this book and I wasn’t expecting it! N.West Moss put a face and a name to issues whispered about in “proper society”. She even discusses that in the book. She wasn’t going to share either her prognosis or the procedure but found she wasn’t alone when she did. Her setbacks and triumphs are real. Her family and even her neighbors and her pets are there to support her. And her ancestry shines through with stories of her past. I read this in a little more than a day. I am so glad I did. [ Disclaimer: I received this book from an outside source and voluntarily read and reviewed it]
About the author
N. WEST MOSS is the author of the story collection The Subway Stops at Bryant Park. Her essays and short stories have appeared in the New York Times, Salon, McSweeney’s, and many other publications. The recipient of three William Faulkner–William Wisdom gold medals and winner of the Saturday Evening Post ’s Great American Fiction Contest, she holds an MFA in creative writing and a certificate in narrative medicine from Columbia University. She works in New Jersey, where she lives with her husband.
N. WEST MOSS is the author of the story collection The Subway Stops at Bryant Park. Her essays and short stories have appeared in the New York Times, Salon, McSweeney’s, and many other publications. The recipient of three William Faulkner–William Wisdom gold medals and winner of the Saturday Even...
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