“In the wonderful memoir, SOLACE, Cornelia Maude Spelman says, ‘Everything I have always been writing in my diaries is about Time.’ With compelling frankness and consistent intimacy, she explores a rich tapestry of generations of lives, considering so many facets of what makes a life difficult as well as profound–alcoholism, recovery, loss, illness and death, the raising of children, presence and absence, mixed feelings about parents and ancestors, a devotion to art, and marriage–both when it’s comfortable and when it isn’t. I admire deeply what I have always loved about Spelman’s writing- her willingness to tell an honest story, create moods, then gaze thoughtfully into them, weighing what one does next, or figuring out how it all goes together. This book is a gem.”
Naomi Shihab Nye, author of Everything Comes Next and Voices in the Air
SOLACE returns in part to Spelman’s themes in her first memoir, MISSING, as she writes of the continuing influence of generational losses and emotional legacies, weaving stories of other lives and of her own as daughter, mother, grandmother, friend, and therapist: stories of comfort, grief and grace,
“SOLACE is deeply moving, honest, and immensely readable. ….Spelman’s revelations take shape in letters to her mother, and in intimate, emotionally precise episodes …her vivid, lucid diary entries where her knack for capturing the essence of the moment shines. Spelman at her core is a healer.”
Suzanne Frischkorn, Author of Whipsaw and Fixed Star
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