Making Toast
A Family Story
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4.1 • 76 Ratings
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- $7.99
Publisher Description
“A painfully beautiful memoir….Written with such restraint as to be both heartbreaking and instructive.”
—E. L. Doctorow
A revered, many times honored (George Polk, Peabody, and Emmy Award winner, to name but a few) journalist, novelist, and playwright, Roger Rosenblatt shares the unforgettable story of the tragedy that changed his life and his family. A book that grew out of his popular December 2008 essay in The New Yorker, Making Toast is a moving account of unexpected loss and recovery in the powerful tradition of About Alice and The Year of Magical Thinking. Writer Ann Beattie offers high praise to the acclaimed author of Lapham Rising and Beet for a memoir that is, “written so forthrightly, but so delicately, that you feel you’re a part of this family.”
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Family tragedy is healed by domestic routine in this quiet, tender memoir. When his daughter Amy died suddenly at the age of 38 from an asymptomatic heart condition, journalist and novelist Rosen-blatt (Lapham Rising) and his wife moved into her house to help her husband care for their three young children. Not much happens except for the mundane, crucial duties of child care: reading stories, helping with schoolwork, chasing after an indefatigable toddler who is "the busiest person I have ever known," making toast to order for finicky kids. Building on the small events of everyday life, Rosenblatt draws sharply etched portraits of his grandchildren; his stoic, gentle son-in-law; his wife, who feels slightly guilty that she is living her daughter's life; and Amy emerges as a smart, prickly, selfless figure whose significance the author never registered until her death. Rosenblatt avoids the sentimentality that might have weighed down the story; he writes with humor and an engagement with life that makes the occasional flashes of grief all the more telling. The result is a beautiful account of human loss, measured by the steady effort to fill in the void.
Customer Reviews
Charming Family Memories
Lovely book about grandparents caring for their grandchildren after the untimely death of their daughter. Reminds me of the beauty in everyday routines & simple activities. These children’s lives will be forever enriched by the daily love & care of family even though they have lost their mother. A support for those in the same situation.
Name dropping is annoying
This is an excellent look at death that comes too early and the damage it leaves in its wake. Hard to put down. The only thing that distracts and detracts is the name dropping that appears with regularity. The author is famous and has famous friends but it seems wrong and too jarring in an otherwise beautiful book about the loss of his daughter. I found it annoying in the end - just like in Ben Bradlee's autobiography, it seemed like bragging.
Making Toast
Couldn't put this down. Did not want it to end! it is surprising that this story could so fill one with such hope. Thank you Mr. Rosenblatt.