If Nights Could Talk : A Family Memoir

Rating:
Summary: Wonderful and Well Written
Review: After seeing an article about this book in 'O' magazine, I had to read it. As a high school Literature teacher, I found Marsha Recknagel's memoir to be captivating, moving, and extremely well written. Recknagel has captured a part of her life on these pages, sharing it with others. Perhaps because it is a story that needed to be told. How evil a supposed loved one can be is frightening, especially to a young boy. The author's nephew is a brave yet damaged boy, who withstands the trials of Hell, and brings his aunt out of the wreckage with him. I bought this book three days ago, and could not put it down until I was finished. I highly recommend this true tale be read by one and all.

Rating:
Summary: Well written, moving story
Review: I could not put this book down. Not only does the story keep you on the edge of your seat, but the author tells it with such grace and eloquence.

Rating:
Summary: Not my cup of Tea
Review: I found the author to be too self absorded. I agreed with the NYTimes Reviewer who criticized the author for belaboring her own personal suffering. I did feel for Jamie, but the on and on "me me me" of the writer turned me off. I am just your average genX reader from a middle class background. Some of her descriptions of the younger people were rather snotty and out of touch. But, then again maybe it's just hard to relate to someone who's so much older, who enjoyed such a priviledged upbringing, dysfunctional as it might have been.

Rating:
Summary: Well written, moving story
Review: I found the book captivating. I know the courage Marsha must have to write these Memoirs. I am so proud to have known the little girl and now the adult woman. Her sister Gail should be praised for rescuing Jamie.I could not close the book until the last page.
I ran the full spectrum of emotions-- loved the book. The telling of the story carries you forward with the need to know more. I hated for the story to end. I am so proud of you Marsha......And Gail, she knows why.

Rating:
Summary: Moving, intense
Review: I had the wonderful pleasure of having Marsha for my creative writing instructor several semesters ago when she first sent this book off for publishing. I have been in great anticipation of it since then and it did not let me down! Having known Marsha personally and some of her story, her word was every bit as moving and powerful in her written accounts and packs even more of a punch at her readings of this book. A tearjerker for sure, it will inspire you to read to the last page when at last you sigh and have to put it down, ready to rest.

Rating:
Summary: Powerful and awesome, but sad
Review: I read this book recently. I could not put it down. It's a book that really makes you think about how awful things or people can really be in this world, but that sometimes even one person can make a world of difference. Marsha Recknagel is her nephew's saviour, but in turn, he is hers as well. I don't, and could never, know this story from the characters perspective's in this memoir, but I do feel as though every person has felt the ways Jamie(the nephew) and Marsha feel. Her story is real, full of feeling and personal truths. My heart is ten times bigger after reading this book. I strongly recommend it!

Rating:
Summary: reply to "not my cup of tea"
Review: I respect the opinion of the reviewer who said that Recknagel's book was not his or her "cup of tea," but I don't understand how one could criticize Recknagel for belaboring her own suffering. This book is a brilliant and poignant account of one woman's struggle to create/recreate a family, and the suffering that she endures while accomplishing this anchor the memoir in reality. I felt, contrary to the other reviewer, that Recknagel was amazingly self-aware of her own insecurties, vulnerabilties, and subjectivity. Would the story have been better if Recknagel left out the gritty and painful details? Surely not. There's a reason why this book has been as highly recommended as it has: it presents a realistic struggle-- with all of its complications.

Rating:
Summary: A Warm, Gripping Memoir
Review: This up-lifting story begins with a derelict kid on the writer's doorstep and takes us backwards and forwards in narrative time, letting us get to know the characters and what ails them the way you get to know a neighbor's history, a little at a time and out of order. The memories are funny and tragic in their recounting, making the place where we depart company, which isn't completely safe, nonetheless gracefully triumphant.

Recknagel's use of metaphor/simile is awesome.