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Sorrows & Songs

One Lifetime - Many Lives

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Pub Date Dec 15 2015 | Archive Date Mar 31 2017

Description

In words as clear and sharp as cut crystal glass, the memoir Sorrows & Songs: One Lifetime – Many Lives unflinchingly tells the story of a bright, beautiful, and promising young child who forged towards a fully realized life in spite of years of physical and mental abuse at the hands of her parents and pervasive society-wide gender discrimination.

Through her account, Janice Wood Wetzel shares a range of experiences in the context of her life and times – a Depression-era childhood, World War II, a teen pregnancy and miscarriage, a 20-year marriage that produced three much loved children but ultimately ended in divorce in her late 30s, the numbing social conformity that informed the ‘50s and early ‘60s, a mental health crisis in the form of depression, a stint in a psychiatric hospital, the suicide of her father, and soon thereafter, the tragic death of her mother, and a bout with alcoholism. Finally, the mid-1960s brought hope in the form of second-wave feminism, which enlightened the world and consequently changed the author’s life.

One by one, through quiet acts of bravery, Janice Wood Wetzel broke through sexist obstacles and emerged as a civil rights pioneer, a recognized feminist and human rights researcher, strategist, and advocate, as well as a United Nations nongovernmental representative, and a highly regarded professor and Dean of Social Work.

A successful life, yes. But at a price. From a painful crucible of dreams deferred and loves lost emerged both a life of many victories and a rewarding memoir.

About the Author
Janice Wood Wetzel
is a professor emerita and former dean of social work who has served as a United Nations nongovernmental representative in New York since 1988. She is a well-published international educator and researcher who specializes in the human rights, mental health, and advancement of women from a global perspective. The mother of three and grandmother of four, Janice has lived all over the United States. For the past 27 years, her home has been on the Upper West Side of Manhattan.

In words as clear and sharp as cut crystal glass, the memoir Sorrows & Songs: One Lifetime – Many Lives unflinchingly tells the story of a bright, beautiful, and promising young child who forged...


Advance Praise

"Wetzel's life-story will both inspire and amaze readers in its fantastic life-story with a humble telling." -- Booksellers World

Feathered Quill Book Awards Silver/2nd place Memoirs 2017


"Wetzel's life-story will both inspire and amaze readers in its fantastic life-story with a humble telling." -- Booksellers World

Feathered Quill Book Awards Silver/2nd place Memoirs 2017



Available Editions

EDITION Paperback
ISBN 9780996830119
PRICE $14.95 (USD)

Average rating from 8 members


Featured Reviews

Born to alcoholic parents in the early 1930s, Janice Wood Wetzel overcame a childhood full of abuse, a teenage pregnancy, a rocky marriage and alcoholism to become an established academic and advocate for women. Wood relays her story without self-pity, but with an eye toward gut-wrenching detail that makes this a memorable read. There are some structural and pacing issues, most noticeable in the book's meandering final third, but the memoir as a whole is worth reading.

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In the memoir Sorrows and Songs, Janice Wood Wetzel's voice shines through as that of a strong woman despite the obstacles that were placed in her path. Her voice reflects the culture of the times she lived through, as well as that of her persona. The memoir begins in the Depression-era with her childhood and teenage years during which she suffered a lot of physical and mental abuse from her parents.. It continues with a promising college education that is not realized because of a twenty year marriage that was not fairy tale, and ends up with her spending time in a psychiatric hospital. During those times, and as well as through the World War II era and the 1950s and 1960s the societal norms of the times are reflected. Those of outward appearances being kept up at all costs. Those of women subjugating their lives for their husbands who have the final word. Wetzel overcomes these experiences in the early 1970s as she enters the field of social work where she has a successful and impactful career. This memoir was painful to read, and took courage to write.

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Sorrows & Songs
One Lifetime - Many Lives
by Janice Wood Wetzel
Fullarton Press


Biographies & Memoirs
Pub Date 15 Dec 2015  

Janice Wood Wetzel Childhood was not typical from the time she was a yong child she faced loss, she endured abuse from her Mother, and Father who both had issues with alcohol, and she tried to forget about the unexpected bumps and bruises on her Mother, not wanting to admit her Father caused those abuse, her brother was so traumatized he would spend his life running away from the problems up until his death at 68, from Cancer.

By the time she was seventeen the family had moved fifteen times while her Father was transferred from one Ge Plant to another, and eventually after the loss of a great Aunt where the family inherited a sizeablr inheritance they would move to Altadena and her Father would quit his job at GE.

Before she finishes school she discovers she is five months pregnant, having gone all the way with a boy, and her parents send her to live with an Aunt, where she is soon hospitalized and nearly dies in childbirth, but instead of her Mother comforting her, she slaps her where the stitches all, causes excurating pain, and her Father would not even talk to her while she was in the hospital, eventhough she had nearly died.


At twenty eight, she would get a call from her Mother one night, she'd get a call saying her Father had committed suicide, and five months later her Mother would be dead too, after slipping in the shower, a bottle of alcohol found nearby.

In the meantime Jancie was dealing with her own failling marriage, her own issues with alcohol and a husband who was mean when he drank.

Their Father would win custody of the children, not unusaul during the time. After awhile Janice would come to fall in love with a woman, and awhile later she realizes she wants a man in her life once more and begins a relationship with a man but when she wants to get to serious, he decides to break the realationship off.

I give Sorrows & Songs foour out of five stars.

Happy Reading!

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The adage truth is stranger than fiction definitely holds for this really very fascinating memoir. The author is extremely bright and articulate, not just in describing the emotional pain and happiness she has suffered/enjoyed but also in documenting her emotional and educational growth. Anyone who is interested in women, their journeys and the struggles of women throughout the world will find this book exciting!

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Five stars Review! I would definitely recommend this book.

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