A review by juliajjshields
Splinters: A Memoir by Leslie Jamison

feels difficult to give a true review as I listened to this on Spotify & about halfway through I reached my audiobook limit. This meant I couldn’t continue until two weeks later, making the story and memoir feel quite disjointed. 

Listening to Jamison tell her story, I thought about how special books are to let us into the minds and experiences of others. In short, the memoir was about motherhood &  unpacking the grief of what life could have been had something in the past gone differently. This theme recurs throughout the book as Jamison continues to question her choice to have left her husband shortly after the birth of their daughter. 

I’m aware that divorce rates are higher than ever and when I learn of divorces, it is not by any means shocking. By this I just mean that they’re quite common. What I never really considered (beyond acknowledgment) are the layers of grief, angst & questioning that come with this process. A mourning for what could have been and never really knowing. Even with the interrupted listening experience, I thought this was well done & interesting  

“Our if only selves are infinitely virtuous and impossible to confirm”

“Would every moment of our happiness carry grief in its veins? I had not solved this problem, only learned to live inside it. Perhaps being haunted was its own uncanny abundance.”