I'm the One Who Got Away
A Memoir
by Andrea Jarrell
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Pub Date Sep 05 2017 | Archive Date Sep 01 2017
Description
Advance Praise
". . .reminiscent of Joyce Carol Oates. The work’s lasting message is that love, like Jarrell’s prose, is both painful and beautiful. A stunning series of recollections with a feminist slant."
―Kirkus Review (STARRED)
“Brave, clear-eyed, compelling and powerful, I’m the One Who Got Away is a riveting story of love and survival. Andrea Jarrell is an uncommonly fine writer whose gritty realism is matched by the rigor and elegance of her prose. This is a wonderful debut.”
―Dani Shapiro, Hourglass and Still Writing
“I was enthralled. Andrea Jarrell is a stunning writer, moving deftly through decades in near-cinematic prose (seriously: somebody make this book into a movie!). We’re with her in LA, imagining her largely absent father; in Austin, knowing she took a wrong turn; in Maine and D.C. realizing how our childhoods tangle with our grown-up selves. I’m thinking about how imagination is as much a part of memoir as lived experience. I’m thinking about what it means to live in curiosity, not judgment. I’m thinking that I need to stop what I’m doing and read this book again. Like, immediately."
―Megan Stielstra, The Wrong Way to Save Your Life and Once I Was Cool
“Andrea Jarrell's beautiful memoir―her adventurous yet protective single mother; insinuating father/stranger; friends and encounters, lovers and spouse, templates of what she must move beyond, accept, or embrace to become bravely herself―is as riveting as a mystery and as filling as a feast.”
―William O'Sullivan, Washingtonian magazine
“Beautifully told with great wisdom and clear-eyed courage, Andrea Jarrell has mapped her personal journey in life―the fears and obstacles and losses as well as the joys and comforts of love and finding her own sense of home. I could not put it down.”
―Jill McCorkle, Life After Life and Going Away Shoes
"Andrea Jarrell lets us join her as she gets away, lets us feel the thrilling trajectory of escape as she breaks through familial and personal patterns into a freer, more joyful life. This honest, thoughtful memoir is written with great compassion; Jarrell’s love for her family, and for her own journey as a woman, rises off the page, even in the most painful moments. She reminds us to be our own liberators, our own witnesses, to appreciate the majesty of our own everyday world."
―Gayle Brandeis, The Art of Misdiagnosis: A Memoir and The Book of Dead Birds
“Haunted by her father’s absence and riveted by her single mother’s cautionary tales, Andrea Jarrell longed for the ‘stuff of ordinary families’ even as she was drawn to the drama of her parents’ larger-than-life love. In her wise and resonant memoir, Jarrell revisits stories starring wolves in cowboy clothing and lambs led astray by charming savior-saboteurs, to lovingly recount how she escaped a narrative she'd learned by heart and wrote her own version of a happy life.”
―Elizabeth Mosier, The Playgroup and My Life as a Girl
Available Editions
| EDITION | Other Format |
| ISBN | 9781631522604 |
| PRICE | $16.95 (USD) |
| PAGES | 256 |
Links
Featured Reviews
Jillian R, Bookseller
This book was hard to put down. As much as I wanted to turn away from some of the topics, Andrea Jarrell discussed them in a way that made me knew that she would get through it in the end. At times harrowing and at times joyful, this book is what a memoir should be: a celebration of a life well lived.
Janilyn K, Reviewer
This was an excellent book. I read it rapidly. The author has such a familiar, comfortable narrative, I couldn't put it down. She never reveals her parents' true names, but they are unnecessary because Jarrell paints their characters where monikers aren't needed, It's a great story about living life with the trials and tribulations and figuring things out as you go, sometimes the realizations don't happen until decades later.
Kimberly O, Educator
Andrea Jarrell's memoir is thoughtful, entertaining, and an enjoyable afternoon's reading. Her insight and keen observations are a fascinating window into her life. A lot of her story is relatable, and I found myself nodding along in several places. I am glad I got to read I'm the One Who Got Away.
Stephanie N, Reviewer
When I saw the summary of this book I assumed that this book would focus solely on the author's mother. Almost everyone has heard of "the battered wife syndrome," and I think in a way both the author and her mother have the same issues with the father.
I loved how raw and real the author was. She examined both herself and her mother, in regards to their faults and strengths, and especially with the father., "Nick." No matter what he does or how he fails them, both Andrea and her mother keep letting him back in. In a way he contributes to all the bad qualities they have; for example, Andrea's constant insecurities.
I thought this book flowed very well, and I enjoyed Andrea's honesty and her acceptance of both her and her mother's stories. I think without this she would have never been able to move on in her life. Thankfully she now has a full life and so does her mother; which they both deserve.
I would recommend this book to anyone who wants to read a great memoir about the true bonds of family; especially a mother and daughter.
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