
- 320 pages
- English
- ePUB (mobile friendly)
- Available on iOS & Android
eBook - ePub
About this book
INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • NPR Best Book of the Year • Time Best Book of the Year • Oprah Daily Best Memoir of the Year
“A bittersweet study in both grief and joy.” —Time
“A sparklingly beautiful memoir-in-vignettes” (Isaac Fitzgerald, New York Times bestselling author) that explores coming of age in your middle age—from the bestselling poet and author of Keep Moving.
“Life, like a poem, is a series of choices.”
In her memoir You Could Make This Place Beautiful, poet Maggie Smith explores the disintegration of her marriage and her renewed commitment to herself. The book begins with one woman’s personal heartbreak, but its circles widen into a reckoning with contemporary womanhood, traditional gender roles, and the power dynamics that persist even in many progressive homes. With the spirit of self-inquiry and empathy she’s known for, Smith interweaves snapshots of a life with meditations on secrets, anger, forgiveness, and narrative itself. The power of these pieces is cumulative: page after page, they build into a larger interrogation of family, work, and patriarchy.
You Could Make This Place Beautiful, like the work of Deborah Levy, Rachel Cusk, and Gina Frangello, is an unflinching look at what it means to live and write our own lives. It is a story about a mother’s fierce and constant love for her children, and a woman’s love and regard for herself. Above all, this memoir is “extraordinary” (Ann Patchett) in the way that it reveals how, in the aftermath of loss, we can discover our power and make something new and beautiful.
“A bittersweet study in both grief and joy.” —Time
“A sparklingly beautiful memoir-in-vignettes” (Isaac Fitzgerald, New York Times bestselling author) that explores coming of age in your middle age—from the bestselling poet and author of Keep Moving.
“Life, like a poem, is a series of choices.”
In her memoir You Could Make This Place Beautiful, poet Maggie Smith explores the disintegration of her marriage and her renewed commitment to herself. The book begins with one woman’s personal heartbreak, but its circles widen into a reckoning with contemporary womanhood, traditional gender roles, and the power dynamics that persist even in many progressive homes. With the spirit of self-inquiry and empathy she’s known for, Smith interweaves snapshots of a life with meditations on secrets, anger, forgiveness, and narrative itself. The power of these pieces is cumulative: page after page, they build into a larger interrogation of family, work, and patriarchy.
You Could Make This Place Beautiful, like the work of Deborah Levy, Rachel Cusk, and Gina Frangello, is an unflinching look at what it means to live and write our own lives. It is a story about a mother’s fierce and constant love for her children, and a woman’s love and regard for herself. Above all, this memoir is “extraordinary” (Ann Patchett) in the way that it reveals how, in the aftermath of loss, we can discover our power and make something new and beautiful.
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Yes, you can access You Could Make This Place Beautiful by Maggie Smith in PDF and/or ePUB format, as well as other popular books in Social Sciences & Social Science Biographies. We have over one million books available in our catalogue for you to explore.
Information
Table of contents
- Cover
- Title Page
- Epigraph
- Prologue
- 1. Pinecone
- 2. Postcard
- 3. Grenade
- 4. A Note on Conventions
- 5. Sleight of Hand
- 6. Some People Ask
- 7. A Friend Says Every Book Begins with an Unanswerable Question
- 8. A Note on Setting
- 9. How It Began
- 10. The Play
- 11. A Note on Plot
- 12. Thereās Kubrick, and Then Thereās This
- 13. Living in Sin
- 14. A Note on Foreshadowing
- 15. The Play
- 16. Half-Double
- 17. A Note on Foreshadowing
- 18. After Reading āMock Orangeā
- 19. A Friend Says Every Book Begins with an Unanswerable Question
- 20. Bittersweet
- 21. Violet
- 22. Grounds
- 23. First Fall
- 24. The Play
- 25. A Note on Character
- 26. A Note on Betrayal
- 27. The Leap
- 28. The Material
- 29. Here We Go Again
- 30. Rhett
- 31. Here Comes the Sun
- 32. A Note on Inciting Incidents
- 33. A Note on the Authorās Intention
- 34. A Friend Says Every Book Begins with an Unanswerable Question
- 35. An Offering
- 36. A Note on Foreshadowing
- 37. Hidden Pictures
- 38. Good Bones
- 39. This Wasnāt the Deal
- 40. On Second Thought
- 41. Some People Will Ask
- 42. The Bully Won?
- 43. Not That One
- 44. A Note on Foreshadowing
- 45. But Hereās the Thing
- 46. A Note on Betrayal
- 47. Clues to the Mystery
- 48. A Friend Says Every Book Begins with an Unanswerable Question
- 49. Please Donāt
- 50. The Spreadsheet
- 51. On Second Thought
- 52. Bruises
- 53. In the Beginning
- 54. Pinecone
- 55. Crying on the Couch
- 56. The Play
- 57. A Note on Conflict & Crisis
- 58. The Material
- 59. The Last Family Vacation
- 60. It Isnāt About the Waves
- 61. The Water
- 62. Taking Down the Pictures
- 63. Something Like Relief
- 64. A Note on Plot
- 65. Some People Ask
- 66. Bank Lollipops
- 67. Grounds
- 68. This Moment Isnāt For You
- 69. Bittersweet
- 70. Keep Moving
- 71. Ghost Story
- 72. Lucky Thirteen
- 73. Updating and Unblurring
- 74. On Second Thought
- 75. A Friend Says Every Book Begins with an Unanswerable Question
- 76. The Edits
- 77. Sad-Ass Divorce Dreams
- 78. About the Body
- 79. A Note on the Title
- 80. Ghost Story
- 81. The Stages
- 82. A Note on Character
- 83. A Note on Plot
- 84. On This Day
- 85. Picture of My Dress
- 86. Rewinding the Film
- 87. Some People Ask
- 88. Bittersweet
- 89. A Friend Says Every Book Begins with an Unanswerable Question
- 90. Motherās Day
- 91. About the Body
- 92. The Firsts
- 93. On Second Thought
- 94. Ghost Story
- 95. Sure You Are
- 96. It Wasnāt All Bad
- 97. A Note on Betrayal
- 98. Air Quotes
- 99. The Play
- 100. A Friend Says Every Book Begins with an Unanswerable Question
- 101. Empire Builder
- 102. Gen X Forever & Ever, Amen
- 103. The Vision Part of the Board
- 104. Quarter Missing
- 105. Self-Portrait
- 106. The Profile
- 107. Ghost Story
- 108. Signing the Papers
- 109. The Poem
- 110. Lemonade
- 111. The Play
- 112. Photo Essay That Wonāt Happen
- 113. Joke
- 114. The Second Christmas
- 115. A Note on Motifs
- 116. A Note on Setting
- 117. Quarantine Skate Club
- 118. Email, Subject Line: Update
- 119. Itās Still There
- 120. Some People Will Ask
- 121. What Now, Mom?
- 122. Because I Was a Beggar
- 123. A Note on Plot
- 124. Email, Subject Line: Update
- 125. This Is Where I Completely Freaked Out
- 126. Bubbles
- 127. A Friend Says Every Book Begins with an Unanswerable Question
- 128. Keep Moving
- 129. Things I Know For Sure
- 130. The Sparks
- 131. A Half Hour to Cry
- 132. A Note on Betrayal
- 133. An Offering
- 134. Grenade
- 135. Wolf in Sheepās Clothing
- 136. Sad-Ass Divorce Dream
- 137. When It Rains, It Pours
- 138. About the Body
- 139. Iām All Yours
- 140. Fathomed
- 141. An Offering
- 142. This Moment Isnāt For You
- 143. Tell-Mine
- 144. The Archive I Have
- 145. Some People Ask
- 146. Because You Canāt Misplace Your Earlobe
- 147. Hidden Valentines
- 148. A Friend Says Every Book Begins with an Unanswerable Question
- 149. Home
- 150. Bittersweet
- 151. Well, He Should Know
- 152. But Hereās the Thing, Walt
- 153. An Offering
- 154. More Sad-Ass Divorce Dreams, Or the Little Red Hen in Reverse
- 155. The Slideshow
- 156. A Note on the Authorās Intention
- 157. Nostalgia
- 158. The Play
- 159. A Pantoum, a Villanelle, a Ghazal
- 160. Disposable
- 161. Ghost Story
- 162. Jackpot
- 163. On Second Thought
- 164. When the Metaphor Is Right There
- 165. Icarus Flew Before He Fell
- 166. About the Body
- 167. The Contract
- 168. A Friend Says Every Book Begins with an Unanswerable Question
- 169. Some People Ask
- 170. Punching Bag
- 171. One Small Step
- 172. Birds
- 173. Bees
- 174. When the Metaphor Is Right There
- 175. Above the Real
- 176. Outrage
- 177. The Material
- 178. This Is What We Call a Full-Circle Moment
- 179. Caregiver
- 180. Forty Things
- 181. Postcard
- 182. The Things
- 183. Great White
- 184. The Intangibles
- 185. Joke
- 186. It Wasnāt All Bad
- 187. Another Motherās Day
- 188. Some People Will Ask
- 189. Years That Question
- 190. The Play
- 191. The Material
- 192. The Scraps
- 193. A Note on Form
- 194. A Kind of Cento, Collaged from Pieces of the Whole
- 195. A Note on the Title
- 196. Magical Thinking
- 197. A Note on Plot
- 198. A Friend Says Every Book Begins with an Unanswerable Question
- 199. Golden
- 200. Rainbow Connection
- 201. It Gets Pretty Woo Here
- 202. Updating and Unblurring
- 203. Full Disclosure
- 204. Some People Will Ask
- 205. Magical Thinking
- 206. How It Ends
- 207. Calling Myself Darling
- 208. Bride
- Acknowledgments
- Reading Group Guide
- āDear Writerā Teaser
- About the Author
- Credits
- Copyright