Official Review: Magnificent Sorrow by Kate Horsley
Posted: 02 Aug 2020, 07:25
[Following is an official OnlineBookClub.org review of "Magnificent Sorrow" by Kate Horsley.]
Kate Horsley’s book, Magnificent Sorrow: A Memoir of Two Lives, is described on the cover as ‘a creative non-fiction account’ of the lives of real people. The two lives she memorializes are those of Suzette Ryerson, a young woman from a wealthy American family who died in 1921, and her own son, Aaron, who was hit by a car and killed in 2000 at the age of just nineteen. In the aftermath of Aaron’s death, the author is drawn to accounts of Suzette’s life by odd synchronicities and coincidences. In this book, she alternates Suzette’s story with her own, weaving the two together seamlessly.
The narrative starts in 1909 when Suzette is nineteen and suffering from typhoid. She is the eldest of five children, closest to her brother, Arthur, who is younger by two years. Arthur is a reluctant student at Yale. Suzette’s role in life is to settle down with a suitable husband as soon as possible, something she kicks against. On a family trip to Europe, Mr. Ryerson receives a cable from home informing him that Arthur has been killed in a road accident. The family immediately books passage from Cherbourg on a cruise liner heading to New York: that liner is the ill-fated ‘Titanic’. The disaster that follows leaves a lasting impression on Suzette. Meanwhile, in the parallel narrative, Kate receives the news that Aaron has been killed. His memorial service takes place on April 14th, the same date on which the ‘Titanic’ struck an iceberg. Over the next few years, the author finds other things that seem to link her experience of Aaron’s death with aspects of Suzette’s life. What emerges is a powerful story of a mother’s search for something to explain and make sense of the ‘magnificent sorrow’ she feels and her empathy with a young woman from another time who experienced that same emotion.
The historical aspect of the book is well-researched, and I enjoyed the picture the author paints of the Ryersons and their privileged lifestyle. This is more than just a social history, however. The author brings the characters to life and makes the reader genuinely interested in them; very quickly, I found myself skipping forward to the photographs of the Ryerson family that are included in the book to see what these people I was reading about looked like. I also liked the way the author blended the early twentieth-century account with her own contemporary narrative. She does this in a way that feels natural and unforced. The author’s account of her loss provides the most powerful and poignant writing in the book. It is an honest and unflinching account of a mother’s grief for her son. She is upfront in acknowledging that many of the synchronicities between her experience and that of Suzette could be construed by others as ‘some metaphysical, New Age spin’ (p42) on her tragedy. Her narrative is sensitive to this; at no point does she try and force any particular interpretation on the reader. She simply details events and her feelings about them, allowing the reader to form an independent judgment.
There were some minor errors in the book including some inconsistencies that should have been picked up in the editing process. For example, the French word ‘équipe’ is used to describe the team of nurses Suzette works with during World War I. The word is used many times. Sometimes it has a French accent, sometimes it doesn’t. Occasionally, this happens within the same paragraph.
While this book is deserving of the top score, I can only award it 3 out of 4 stars on account of the errors I’ve mentioned. The book has adult themes but there is no sexually explicit content and only one profanity. I would wholeheartedly recommend this book to anyone who enjoys historical fiction and memoirs.
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Magnificent Sorrow
View: on Bookshelves
Kate Horsley’s book, Magnificent Sorrow: A Memoir of Two Lives, is described on the cover as ‘a creative non-fiction account’ of the lives of real people. The two lives she memorializes are those of Suzette Ryerson, a young woman from a wealthy American family who died in 1921, and her own son, Aaron, who was hit by a car and killed in 2000 at the age of just nineteen. In the aftermath of Aaron’s death, the author is drawn to accounts of Suzette’s life by odd synchronicities and coincidences. In this book, she alternates Suzette’s story with her own, weaving the two together seamlessly.
The narrative starts in 1909 when Suzette is nineteen and suffering from typhoid. She is the eldest of five children, closest to her brother, Arthur, who is younger by two years. Arthur is a reluctant student at Yale. Suzette’s role in life is to settle down with a suitable husband as soon as possible, something she kicks against. On a family trip to Europe, Mr. Ryerson receives a cable from home informing him that Arthur has been killed in a road accident. The family immediately books passage from Cherbourg on a cruise liner heading to New York: that liner is the ill-fated ‘Titanic’. The disaster that follows leaves a lasting impression on Suzette. Meanwhile, in the parallel narrative, Kate receives the news that Aaron has been killed. His memorial service takes place on April 14th, the same date on which the ‘Titanic’ struck an iceberg. Over the next few years, the author finds other things that seem to link her experience of Aaron’s death with aspects of Suzette’s life. What emerges is a powerful story of a mother’s search for something to explain and make sense of the ‘magnificent sorrow’ she feels and her empathy with a young woman from another time who experienced that same emotion.
The historical aspect of the book is well-researched, and I enjoyed the picture the author paints of the Ryersons and their privileged lifestyle. This is more than just a social history, however. The author brings the characters to life and makes the reader genuinely interested in them; very quickly, I found myself skipping forward to the photographs of the Ryerson family that are included in the book to see what these people I was reading about looked like. I also liked the way the author blended the early twentieth-century account with her own contemporary narrative. She does this in a way that feels natural and unforced. The author’s account of her loss provides the most powerful and poignant writing in the book. It is an honest and unflinching account of a mother’s grief for her son. She is upfront in acknowledging that many of the synchronicities between her experience and that of Suzette could be construed by others as ‘some metaphysical, New Age spin’ (p42) on her tragedy. Her narrative is sensitive to this; at no point does she try and force any particular interpretation on the reader. She simply details events and her feelings about them, allowing the reader to form an independent judgment.
There were some minor errors in the book including some inconsistencies that should have been picked up in the editing process. For example, the French word ‘équipe’ is used to describe the team of nurses Suzette works with during World War I. The word is used many times. Sometimes it has a French accent, sometimes it doesn’t. Occasionally, this happens within the same paragraph.
While this book is deserving of the top score, I can only award it 3 out of 4 stars on account of the errors I’ve mentioned. The book has adult themes but there is no sexually explicit content and only one profanity. I would wholeheartedly recommend this book to anyone who enjoys historical fiction and memoirs.
******
Magnificent Sorrow
View: on Bookshelves
It is just lacking a few odds and ends, other then I have high hopes for this book....it's also lacking specifications.