Balsamroot: A Memoir

by Mary Clearman Blew

Book Overview

Melding past and present into a moving narrative, Mary Clearman Blew imaginatively recreates the dry, dusty, sparsely populated Montana of the early homesteaders and of her aunt Imogene's young... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0670848573
• ISBN13: 9780670848577
• Release Date: June 1994
• Publisher: Viking
• Length: 224 Pages
• Weight: 0.90 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 6.0" x 8.7"

Customer Reviews

Terrific book - painfully honest

BALSAMROOT is a memoir wrapped around a melancholy tribute to a favorite maiden aunt of the author. "Auntie" Imogene was a schoolteacher whom Blew had always remembered as being independent and happy. When Blew is forced to become her aunt's caretaker in her final years, she discovers Auntie's diaries, and, reading them, learns the true cost of her aunt's independence and the hollowness if not falsity of her supposed happiness. Blew herself has gone through some tough times, a single mother who was long estranged from her own daughter, she became a mother again 21 years after the birth of her first daughter, Elizabeth. Some of her story was told in her other Montana memoir, ALL BUT THE WALTZ. This book exposes the loneliness of her Aunt's solitary life, causing Blew to perhaps question her own choices as she grows older herself, and watches Imogene lapse rather rapidly into dementia and utter helplessness and dependence. Blew makes no bones or excuses about her own life choices, admitting what might be seen by some as selfishness in her relentless pursuit of a successful career in writing and teaching. This is not always an easy story to read, but it is an extremely well-written one. Blew's unfailing attention to her craft - which is ably demonstrated here - excuses a multitude of personal failings, at least for this reader. Mary Clearman Blew knows who she is. She is a writer. Like her first memoir, BALSAMROOT is an admirable piece of work. I liked it. - Tim Bazzett, author of the REED CITY BOY trilogy

Learning While a Caregiver.

Ever wondered what you would do if you were the caregiver to an elderly relative? Mary Blew finds herself pressed into caregiving when her Aunt Imogene calls and says that she is going to move from Port Angeles, Washington to Lewistown, ID to be near Mary. Mary has no idea why her aunt would want to leave her beautiful view of the ocean and surrounding area and questions her. Since their family has tacitly agreed never to speak about what is important, her aunt ambiguously replies that it is because one day she "forgot how to make oatmeal." Blew is confused since Aunt Imogene, whose independence she has long admired, was the steadying rock in her life that offered her support during her two divorces. Quickly we realize that that Aunt Imogene is suffering from mental lapses that rapidly progress to "dementia" where she flickers arbitrarily between reality and her own world. Dealing with an independent aunt who is struggling to control her life is compounded by Blew's estranged daughter divorcing her husband and moving near her mother. As Blew works to rebuild a relationship with the daughter who she had treated with great reserve, she is forced to revisit her divorces, her treatment of her daughter, and her expectations for life. Then Mary Blew finds and reads her aunt's diaries. Aunt Imogene has never married, and Mary searches the diaries to discover why. Carefully reading between the lines, she finds surprising revelations not only about her aunt but also about her parents and grandparents, thereby overlaying and entwining the lives of four generations. This gives the memoir a fragmented narrative associatively entwining the life of the narrator, her daughter, her aunt, and their ancestors. Refusing to keep her family's code of silence about important things, Blew shares her findings with her daughter. What she finds are dysfunctional marriages that compel females in her family to strive for personal freedom, females who are unwilling to speak about what really matters, and women with an ability to suppress large parts of their lives. Aunt Imogene has paid dearly for her freedom in Port Angles; however, as she loses her grasp with the world, Mary Blew slowly receives a firmer grasp on her own world. Recognizing destructive familial patterns in herself, Blew intimates that her journey of self-discovery was successful as she takes small steps to spring loose "unacceptable" ideas that she has suppressed.

Balsamroot is a moving, beautiful family memoir

I loved this book and recommend it to any lover of memoir. Mary Clearman Blew renders a heartfelt story about uncovering the mysteries of her Aunt Imogene's life, and in turn, embarking on self-discovery. I suggest first reading "All But the Waltz," which puts Balsamroot in a rich context of family history. It is also a wonderful narrative on its own.