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In The Backyard: Relearning the Art of Aging, Dying and Making Love
Guernica Editions (MiroLand), Fall 2018
192 pages
Trade Paperback
ISBN13: 9781771832366
ISBN10: 1771832363
English
$20.00 Canada, $20.00 US
Read more from the MiroLand
Attempting to make sense of her life, and change her sad disposition
to a happy one, the author of In the Backyard: Relearning the
Art of Aging, Dying and Making Love seeks out the help of her
in-house therapist/husband, Dr. George Nemeth. The accredited
psychologist's answers to the big questions provide a compassionate
and humorous backdrop on to how to seize the day and not give
up hope when faced with the nasty realities of poor health and
unrealized aspirations.
Mirrors, like monsters, come in all shapes and sizes. They sneak up on you when you least expect it and take a big bite out of your life. Monsters hide in the dark. No such luck with mirrors. You can't avoid the damn things. Nor can you avoid getting old.
Time to slay the dragon, I tell myself. I'm old enough. Fight back. Better to be predator than prey.
The Montreal writer’s memoir traverses 10 years, beginning when she is 50 and lamenting the physical depredations of aging (“I am not pleased with God’s handiwork”). Fortunately, her “in-house therapist,” her psychologist husband, offers bane for her discontent (a sense of humour, or the ability to fake it, being key). But then he is diagnosed with metastatic prostate cancer, which requires her to revise her chief grievance: “Death is the enemy; old age, a dear friend.” This is a clarifying memoir, a tonic for women coming to grips with love, loss and mortality.
Sarah Murdoch, Toronto Star
I am half way through your book; I can’t seem to want to put it down. I’m really enjoying it…. A very easy read on deep subjects.
Lucy Foglietta, artist
Melfi … thrives as a powerful force in the Canadian literary landscape, exposing readers to images, ideas and conceptions of reality we could otherwise never have imagined.
Italian Canadiana
The author writes with touching awareness about her struggle to rebuild her life following the sudden death of her husband. Sensitive, engaging & most importantly helpful for those facing similar issues.
Richard King, CBC Homerun
With a title like ‘In the Backyard: Relearning the Art of Aging, Dying and Making Love,’ who wouldn’t want to read it?
Laura Casella, co-host of TV Global News Morning
[In the Backyard] is both moving, witty, at times wildly funny, and sharply observant…. All in all, a tour-de-force of a unique literary work.
Dr. Lászlo Géfin, poet, author & retired English professor, Concordia University
[In the Backyard] is written with humor… and with feeling.
Dr. Laurie Betito, host of CJAD 800 Passion Radio Show
Powerful, thoughtful, and sensitive, emotional all at once.
Dr. András Sándor, poet, essayist & retired professor of English, Brown University
This is to let you know how much I loved your memoir…. I could not put it down. I drank you page after page. Such a wonder – you are. In a world of self-hating people, you stand away from these – you scream out the importance of loving oneself. You master the aphorisms – and the similes. But somehow you keep it all very close to the heart, the tangible world. You are the best writer in this country…. Everyone should be reading your memoir. Keeping a copy in their coat pocket. I raise my champagne glass to you. Auguri.
Dr. Antonio D’Alfonso, poet, author, filmmaker & translator
Melfi is interested in the metaphysical side of human existence, the difficulties of establishing a coherent feminine identity, cultural dislocation, and the artist’s attempt to create a new reality.
The Oxford Companion to Canadian Literature
Reviews
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CBC Homerun with Richard King
CBC Homerun - September 26, 2019
Books by Mary Melfi
