How to Forget - Kate Mulgrew

How to Forget

By Kate Mulgrew

  • Release Date: 2019-05-21
  • Genre: Biographies & Memoirs
Score: 4
4
From 77 Ratings

Description

“This is a masterfully crafted memoir, an elegant tour de force that firmly establishes Mulgrew as a writer of significant literary endowment. The soulmate to Frank McCourt’s Angela’s Ashes, How to Forget, despite the promise of its title, cannot be forgotten or ignored.” —Augusten Burroughs, author of Running with Scissors and Toil & Trouble

In this profoundly honest and examined memoir about returning to Iowa to care for her ailing parents, the star of Orange Is the New Black and bestselling author of Born with Teeth takes us on an unexpected journey of loss, betrayal, and the transcendent nature of a daughter’s love for her parents. 

They say you can’t go home again. But when her father is diagnosed with aggressive lung cancer and her mother with atypical Alzheimer’s, New York-based actress Kate Mulgrew returns to her hometown in Iowa to spend time with her parents and care for them in the time they have left.

The months Kate spends with her parents in Dubuque—by turns turbulent, tragic, and joyful—lead her to reflect on each of their lives and how they shaped her own. Those ruminations are transformed when, in the wake of their deaths, Kate uncovers long-kept secrets that challenge her understanding of the unconventional Irish Catholic household in which she was raised.

Breathtaking and powerful, laced with the author’s irreverent wit, How to Forget is a considered portrait of a mother and a father, an emotionally powerful memoir that demonstrates how love fuses children and parents, and an honest examination of family, memory, and indelible loss.

Reviews

  • Intimate view of family tragedy

    5
    By arjohnson10
    An intimate look at the unique dynamic of a family struggling with the decline and loss of the people who made them who they are, their parents. As told from the perspective of an intelligent, dramatic, and talented woman. We do not often see behind the shroud of fame and success. I appreciated the raw and often uninhabited stories Mrs Mulgrew shares and how it influenced her life.
  • Fascinating

    5
    By Csmc2547
    Another well written, great book from Kate Mulgrew. Reminded me so much of what I went through with my dear sweet Mother. So sweet and heartwarming.
  • Honesty Well Told

    5
    By CJacobson1721
    This is simply a very well written book that really sets scenes with great detail and makes you feel as if you are part of the family. Thank you Ms. Mulgrew for you honesty and allowing us to share in your personal family history.