I read a lot of memoirs and this one was different in that there wasn’t a straight line from early memories and events as her life unfolded as the author grew into her teens years and adulthood. The chapters skipped around a bit and while that wasn’t hard to follow I kept wondering how or if the book would have been more interesting as a straight-through life version… like we live life…
I will say, the last 1/3rd of the book had these amazing one sentence gems where the author succinctly shares life lessons and observations …i.e. “my tight narrative of Samantha Smith began to split at the seams, teaching me once more that we need to hold our stories of others lightly, that no one version tells it all “ … and “ because remembering would have caused her more than forgetting did “ ( as the author in both instances is speaking of Samantha bullying the author relentlessly in school as a child ). “ We have little incentive to summon our crueler moments, which typically shame us more than they teach us “.
This element of the memoir was the most engaging part for me.
Thank you NetGalley and University of MA Press for the advance copy

This is a memoir about a girl who grew up on the Cape. It is so much more than that though! There are questions about memories: who owns them? Who is correct about them? This book feels part memoir and part self help. Very interesting.

I have a visceral reaction to anything which is even tangentially about Cape Cod. I grew up spending summers there staying with family friends who owned a house on the Cape. When I saw that The Innermost House by Cynthia Blakeley was about her childhood growing up in Wellfleet on the Cape, I knew I had to give it a read. I was left disappointed.

As with all memoirs I rate, a disclaimer is needed. My rating of the book has nothing to do with Blakeley's life experience. My rating is entirely based upon how well the author presents and explains those life experiences to the reader. Also, Blakeley does not use the setting of Cape Cod very often as part of her narrative. For the most part, her stories could happen at any beach town which has the ebb and flows of summer migration. This was personally disappointing, but I didn't ding the book for it because the story is what is important.

Blakeley has had an interesting life with many colorful characters around her. Some of these people are loving but with their own quirks. Others are malevolent and readers should be warned that a sexual assault is depicted rather graphically. There are many ways Blakeley can tell these stories for the readers to take away some sort of life lesson or realization. We all have our memories where maybe we had family members who were our favorite while a sibling hated them or our first crush in high school. The issue with this book is not the subject matter because there are many avenues for Blakeley to explore.

The problem comes down to execution and lack of clear purpose. Blakeley's chapters cover various topics and jump in time periods. For example, one chapter deals with her father and their relationship up until his death and the aftermath. Following chapters will then jump back to a time when her father was alive and then back again. While a memoir does not have to be linear, the reader needs to feel comfortable with how stories fall in the timeline. I was consistently forced to stop and think about how old the author was and who was alive, dead, off in Vietnam, or married. Characters will also be put into the narrative only to disappear without any resolution.

The lack of clear purpose is what truly ruined the book for me. Blakeley will often drone on with comments about dreams and memories. Blakeley
has experience with dreams and psychoanalysis, but she does not provide this information in a way which convinces the reader that she is making a point steeped in sturdy science. These diatribes often break the flow of a truly interesting family story. Instead of insight to what we just read, it sounds like someone who is talking off the top of their head and never reaching an actual conclusion about what it all means. This was a major problem for me because Blakeley even discusses in the book that much of her research required speaking to her mother and grandmother who were seemingly re-traumatized by her questioning of their histories. Ultimately, I don't think Blakeley makes a strong enough point to the reader that this was all worth it.

(This book was provided as an advance copy by Netgalley and the University of Massachusetts Press.)

A beautiful memoir. I hope this processing helped the author find peace in being able to view her childhood exp through adult eyes.

THE INNERMOST HOUSE is billed as a memoir, but it’s more like a PhD dissertation about memory or even a “how-to-write-a-memoir” manual, with attention paid to the act of constructing the book you're reading. Don’t go in expecting one cohesive narrative; rather, each chapter explores a different “theme” in the author’s life.

This is one of the most beautifully written memoirs and books that I have recently read.
I am of the idea that memoirs need even a more interesting shape and writing style than plot driven fiction.
I enjoyed the insights into the arts scene, and the author’s citations and complementary notes read like the rest of the book, which is rare. Such a breeze!

Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC. This memoir was a touching piece about the author and her family living on the Cape. Cape Cod is familiar to me as a vacation spot and I wanted to know more about what was going on based on the cover of this book! I enjoyed getting glimpses into the author's memories of over fifty years. It flowed well, and I found it to be one of the best memoirs I've read in 2024.