Customer Reviews

No More Words : A Journal of My Mother, Anne Morrow Lindbergh

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I have read Reeve Lindbergh's work before in her memoir, "Under A Wing". I was surprised at her candor regarding her father, and what was equally clear was her fondness for her mother. "No More Words", which records the last 17 trying and rewarding months of her mother's life, is a tender tribute that is notable for what it includes and for what it omits.

The only photograph of Mrs. Lindbergh is the one that appears on the cover. The photograph depicts a young woman at the start of what would prove to be a life as fascinating as it was lengthy. The closing months of this woman's life are chronicled above all else with a great deal of respect. This is a most private family event, and just as the book is devoid of any pictures for the voyeur, the narrative too is informative without taking away any of the dignity of her mother. This would seem to be an obvious manner to write of one's parent, but a person does not have to look far to find books written with sales as the first goal, and exploitation of the subject left unconsidered.

Reeve Lindbergh is a poet, she is reflective, and these aspects of her personality provide a narrative that is unique. This book is not simply a diary; it is not a chronological description of the systematic health decline of her mother. It is more of a story that is driven by the limited interactions she was able to have with her mother, and the memories that were either hers or recollections of her mother's life. This is not a sugarcoated story of what was a very trying time. The book is a balanced memoir about how difficult it is to deal with not only the death of a parent, but also the very real difficulties and frustrations that caring for an elderly, ill parent involves. Mrs. Lindbergh had the best care available which took much of the moment-to-moment care off of the family. It did not remove many of the difficulties, and the reader can easily imagine what it would entail to care for a parent with little, or no outside help.

This is a very contemplative book that moves at an associated pace.

I had the opportunity to meet Reeve Lindbergh last week at an author event at our local bookstore - she read excerpts of this book and spoke with great joy and humor about her relationship with her mother (and father) despite the difficult few years before her mother's death. This book is a MUST READ for anyone who felt a personal connection with Anne Morrow Lindbergh through her published diaries and letters, or other books.

This is NOT a bedpans, nurses, feeding tubes story filled with morose details about the decline of an aging parent, rather a tender, bittersweet, and often humorous recollection of a much-loved mother and the impact of her life and death upon her daughter and those who surrounded her in her final months and days.

Having adored Anne Morrow Lindbergh's writing, and felt a deep personal connection with her through that writing, this book helped to bring a sort of closure to me. Thank you, Reeve, for sharing your deeply personal reflections of the final chapter of your mother's life.

This is a fast reading book concerning Mrs. Charles Lindbergh's last few years of life. Written by youngest Lindbergh sibling, Reeve, she tells of living on her own farm in Vermont, with a smaller house on the property her mother lived in during that time. Reeve Lindbergh is a wonderful writer - she doesn't need the famous last name to prove that. When she isn't writing about her mother, which is riveting for some reason, her writing of anything else in the book has such a fresh, emotional spirit behind her words. Anne Morrow Lindbergh, a legend in her own time both in flying, her husband, and her many published works, did not talk much in her last years. It is a story of how the family felt and coped with her condition, letting go of the vibrant mother they once knew. An excellent book for those who have been a caregiver to a parent or sibling. Anne M.L. was such a famous figure, it was both interesting and heartwrenching to have the privilege of reading about her day to day living. Thank you, Reeve Lindbergh, for sharing this story that you could have kept to yourself, but chose to share. It's a book that will be remembered long after it's read.

This is a touching memoir of the time when Reeve Lindbergh was helping to take care of her aging mother, the famous Anne Morrow Lindbergh in the last year(s) of her life. This book is a look inside the private lives of a very well known family during a difficult transition in their lives.

The story is about how Reeve is trying to make sense of this time. It contains her thoughts and reflections and fears about the change in her mother's condition. I appreciate the honesty in which this book is written, I feel like the author held nothing back in relating her story. I was surprised and delighted at the openness of it. She wrote about things in dealing with this situation that people think, but would rarely admit to.

I found this book to be very comforting, as I recently experienced a similar situation in my own family. There were so many times, as I read this, I was shaking my head thinking....I know exactly what you're saying. Throughout the ordeal, there are sad times, but there were also light and funny times as well. Dealing with the aging and decline of a loved one that you have known so well all of your life is difficult. They change, and when it happens, we don't always know how to deal with it or what to think, and we wonder what they are thinking. It's hard and it's confusing when you are trying to guess at what is going on in their world. Reeve writes beautifully about it all.

I had not picked this book with the intention of experiencing what I did...the comfort of reading about someone else going through a similar situation as me. I initially picked this book because I love Anne Morrow Lindbergh's book 'Gift of the Sea' and I wanted to read more about her life. Once again, as I am a firm believer of...the right books come along at just the precise moment that we need them and so often they come in an unexpected way as this one did for me.

I was enchanted by "Gifts from the Sea," by Anne Morrow Lindbergh. While reading "No More Words," I could not tell the difference between mother and daughter's writing. Each has the gift of attentive observation, along with the ability to put these observations into words that had me shaking my head with their frankness. Reeve's observations about her mother's deteriorating health were imbued with such love and devotion. She spoke truthfully and without guile of her wish that her mother meet her end soon, not just for her mother but for her, and her family. Yes, Anne Morrow was indeed fortunate, as Reeve pointed out, to be able to afford excellent, around the clock care in her own home. It made me wonder why this level of care isn't available to anyone who would need it, regardless of their income. It gave Anne Morrow's last years a sense of dignity that most of our elderly will never experience. I wondered what the point of this book really was - and then realized that it didn't need one, to be enjoyed.

I led the discussion on GIFT FROM THE SEA at our book club this fall and became engrossed in the diaries of Anne Morrow Lindbergh. What a pleasant experience to discover and read NO MORE WORDS by Reeve Lindbergh. She writes with the same sensitivity and personal insight as her mother. Reeve's relationship with her mother during the final days of Anne's life, reveals the frustrations and the joys of a family caregiver. Her book is a "gift" to all who are or may find themselves in a similar situation.

If you're a caregiver or know someone who is, or has been, do them a profound favor and buy them this book. They will be grateful to you and comforted by Lindbergh's book.

As a daughter of a beloved father who recently passed away from an eleven-year battle with Alzheimers, I had some deep swallows reading this book and some good laughs too. Lindbergh dares to ponder the questions caregivers all think, but seldom mention out loud.

Yes, there were different conditions for Mrs. Lindbergh. There was no financial burden of care for her ailing mother, and she had round-the-clock, hired care. But the time spent every day with her mother was still sacrificial. There was the years of long goodbyes, only to have her mother rally again. Self-doubts and regrets plagued her too as did, "Am I doing all I can, all I should?"

Lindbergh's words are refreshingly forthright and bold. The subtle slipping away of her much-loved mother, along with the absolute oddness of the disease, are all explored in this comforting little book. Lindbergh's writing is proof that rich or poor, there seems to be no easy journey through life and that attitude is a key to getting through it at all. While caring for her mother, she said goodbye to a sister, who died of cancer, besides being a wife and keeping involved in her children's lives. She has a line about her mother in the book, "I am conscious, more than anything else, of her [Mrs. Lindbergh's] strength."

As someone who has read nearly all of Mrs. Lindbergh's works, it is obvious to this reviewer that this strength has been carried through to the next generation of Lindberghs in Reeve Lindbergh.

For followers missing fresh words from Anne Morrow Lindbergh, wife of the famous Charles, No More Words, fills the void through the writing voice of her daughter, Reeve. Readers get the treasureed gift to "know more Lindbergh words" through the talented and revealing hand of Reeve Lindbergh.

The 168 pages will safely hold your tears and your tender memories of the people in your life who you've had to say goodbye to. You will come away from this book, grateful that Lindbergh took the time to share publicly, how long and how hard goodbyes can be. Her words will touch and stay in your soul long after you've finished reading her book.

There is only one word for the writing in this book: luminous. Beyond the poetic texture of the words lies an profound expression of the struggle of watching a parent decline -- in this case, the silence of a mother whose words were her life vocation is particularly painful. This is a book I would like to pass to my children so that they can understand their anguish when I begin my own descent.

Two of our book club have already read this, and it will be our book of choice for the month of January.

I loved Anne Morrow Lindbergh's writing, and I do love Reeve Lindbergh's writing as well. This book is excellent, and very tender.I lived through a very similar situation with my mother's decline and death. Reeve Lindbergh's recounting of her attempts to communicate with her mother ring so true.If nothing else, this book was very comforting in the "you're not alone" manner.I highly commend this book to all carepartners of any age, be they spouses or adult children.

I really enjoyed this book. I think anyone who is a fan of Ann Lindbergh's writings will find it interesting to see how her last months were spent. I also think that anyone in the "sandwich generation" with elderly parents will also appreciate the insights into dealing with parents and teenagers. I found it be a quick read and yet there are parts that I have already reread. I recommended it to my own mother and she called me the next day to thank me. The book opened up some discussion between on what might be coming as she ages.
If you have not read "Under a Wing" also by Reeve Lindbergh you will want to pick it up also.