Ivy Lodge
by: Linda Murphy Marshall
A Memoir of Translation and Discovery
Available Now!
My Thoughts:
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Thank you so much to the author, Book Sparks and She Writes Press for the complimentary copy!
This review contains my honest and unbiased thoughts and opinions. 🌸
When I first came across this book, I was intrigued and knew it was one I wanted to read. Plus, the cover piqued my interest even more. I love sorting through things of the past, remembering memories and stories that each item tells, and often the explanation some provide.
Following the passing of her parents, the author, Linda, returns to her childhood home to sort through all the belongings. Keepsakes, trinkets, everyday items that now must be sorted into anything Linda or her siblings might want to keep. Items that hold memories and stories of the past.
Room by room, item by item, Linda sorts through her parents belongings and begins to attempt to translate true meanings behind the items, the stories the items hold, searching for “why” as well as some piece of evidence that her parents did love her and perhaps a tiny bit of hint as to the reasoning behind their behavior and the way they raised Linda and her siblings.
Among the stories of older days, Linda weaves in tales of her own children and life away from her family. I loved that she included this along with the past stories, it showed just how differently she chose to live and raise her children compared to her own childhood and how her parents raised her. Moving cross country, separating herself from her family and past, Linda chose her own path, she became a successful multilinguist and translator, she raises her own children as a loving parent and choses a better way of life.
Just as Ivy Lodge looked grand from the outside yet told a different story inside, we are reminded that family and life can be complicated and made of so many different layers.
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