Geography of Memory

Jeanne Murray Walker, poet, playwright, and teacher, is the author of seven books of poetry and is a Professor of English at The University of Delaware, where she heads the Creative Writing Concentration. She lives with her husband outside Philadelphia. They are the parents of two children and grandparents of three grandchildren.

In a kind of family alchemy, a mother's failing memory somehow excites the synapses of her daughter's. The result is a child-adult memoir of grace, poignancy, and rich compassion. - Philip Yancey, bestselling authorAt once heart-wrenching and richly rewarding, intimate and objective, coldly cutting, and full of clear-eyed promise, THE GEOGRAPHY OF MEMORY is a beautiful gathering of moments: an artful mosaic of shards that build to a portrait of faith and hope and love. - Bret Lott, author of Letters and Life: On Being a Writer, On Being a Christian and Jewel<In describing her mother's long passage into dementia and its reverberations through a family, Jeanne Murray Walker... shows how the light of hope and grace can illuminate even the darkest journey. For many, many readers THE GEOGRAPHY OF MEMORY will be a treasure. - Alan Jacobs, author of The NarnianThose of us who've accompanied a beloved parent through the valley of the shadow will instantly recognize the terrain in this lyrical and profoundly wise account of aging unto death. Jeanne Murray Walker's THE GEOGRAPHY OF MEMORY is, hands down, one of the most beautiful books I've ever read. - Paula Huston, author of Simplifying the Soul and A Season of MysteryIf you believe there is only darkness and loss in caring for a parent with Alzheimer's, you clearly haven't read Jeanne Murray Walker's book, which sets us straight. This page-turning memoir, fastidious in detail, delivers surprise and wit on nearly every page, teaching us about the immutability and transcendence of human personality, worth, and love. I needed this book. - Leslie Leyland Fields, author of Surviving the Island of Grace: A Life on the Wild Edge of AmericaA beautifully written memoir of a daughter's journey with her mother over the changeful, perilous landscape of Alzheimer's. The author's compassion, humanity, and humor shine through a chaotic, if not amazing, kaleidoscope of family plans, places, and emotions. What powerfully winds through the narrative is a poet's wonderful reflections on her own history and the nature of memory, identity, and self. A dazzling, engaging story of the grace of holding on and letting go. - Dr. Myrna Grant, faculty emerita, Wheaton College, IllinoisWalker, a poet, creates a rich texture of remembered physical detail that not only lends beauty to the narrative but anchors events and emotions in the reader's memory even as they were anchored in her own. - Stephanie Kraft, journalist and author of No Castles on Main Street