You Don't Have to Say You Love Me
A Memoir
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- $11.99
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
A searing, deeply moving memoir about family, love, loss, and forgiveness from the critically acclaimed, bestselling National Book Award-winning author of The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian.
Family relationships are never simple. But Sherman Alexie's bond with his mother Lillian was more complex than most. She plunged her family into chaos with a drinking habit, but shed her addiction when it was on the brink of costing her everything. She survived a violent past, but created an elaborate facade to hide the truth. She selflessly cared for strangers, but was often incapable of showering her children with the affection that they so desperately craved. She wanted a better life for her son, but it was only by leaving her behind that he could hope to achieve it. It's these contradictions that made Lillian Alexie a beautiful, mercurial, abusive, intelligent, complicated, and very human woman.
When she passed away, the incongruities that defined his mother shook Sherman and his remembrance of her. Grappling with the haunting ghosts of the past in the wake of loss, he responded the only way he knew how: he wrote. The result is a stunning memoir filled with raw, angry, funny, profane, tender memories of a childhood few can imagine, much less survive. An unflinching and unforgettable remembrance, You Don't Have to Say You Love Me is a powerful, deeply felt account of a complicated relationship.
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
Sherman Alexie's soulful, compassionate tribute to his profoundly challenging late mother is by turns explosive, uproarious, and haunting. In You Don't Have to Say You Love Me, Alexie—a National Book Award winner best known for his stunning fiction—grapples with the real-life ghosts of his traumatic childhood on the Spokane Indian Reservation. Alexie writes like a dream, using poetry and prose to wring humor from even his most nightmarish memories.
Customer Reviews
Eye opening
Thank you so much for your strength to be so honest. Appreciate what you did to open my eyes!
Not great
I didn’t like this book as much as I thought I would. The first third held my interest but then it started to drag and I noticed it was becoming actually annoying. There was a lack of warmth from the author which I picked up on and I didn’t care for the preachiness of this author.
This is a powerful read!
The honesty, the insight, the self expression and the further cultural and personal awareness that I have learned from this book is invaluable. Thank you Sherman Alexie. It is my hope that this book will be read by millions.