Our Short History

Our Short History by Lauren Grodstein

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


I picked this up because I had read and enjoyed The Explanation for Everything.

Interesting premise: A book written by a dying woman to the son she had with a man with whom she'd had a fling 7 years earlier. Ok, maybe more than a fling. Upon the news of her pregnancy, the dad, assuming she wouldn't keep the baby, moved on, got married and had his own family.

Cut to a few years later. The mother has cancer, with only a few years left to live. She works as a political consultant in New York for a Kennedy-esque figure who has issues keeping his...love...to himself. And she must bring the father back and introduce father to son. But it is so hard to let go...

Once, during a family medical issue, I found myself alone in my house, looking through old photo albums assembled by my mother. During my investigation of many of these previously unseen things, I found evidence of the care and the love that the woman who had raised me and my brother must have felt for us. I had a similar thought when I read this book: a good mother's love knows no limits and can often seem tragic and irrational, even when it's all perfectly normal.

Well written, engaging and thoughtful, Our Short History touches upon that tragic and irrational love that comes from being a parent; seeing the little person you have raised and feeling the sadness in knowing you will never see them grow up. But this is not Lifetime Movie manipulative. This is a moving story.

And that last page is pure gold.



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