Show Me the Way: A Memoir in Stories (Hardcover)

~ (Author) "It's Mother's Day, actually Mother's Day night, and I lie in bed with Steve..." (more)
Key Phrases: antiyeast medication, nipple shield, birth plan, Maria Elena, Doctor Olsen, Mother's Day (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

For best selling author Jennifer Lauck, confronting the unfinished business of childhood is the most important step toward motherhood. Her earlier books, Blackbird and Still Waters detailed breathtaking losses, including the early death of her parents, her brother's suicide, sexual abuse, and unsuccessful attempts to reach her birth mother. In this memoir of short stories, Lauck reveals a gallant and inspiring process of creating meaning in her painful legacy. Lauck's vivid scenes from memory and motherhood evoke psychologist Selma Fraiberg's idea of the "ghosts in the nursery." Scenarios range from subtle to disturbing to slapstick with her sense of humor always intact. She describes how nipple shields saved the day and the diamond studded, power-suited woman in Starbuck's who watched in horror as Lauck reached for a vomit stained wallet while her children spilled a sea of chocolate milk on the table. She writes, "My juggling act is over. I am the poster of the anti-mother who makes the case for contraception." Lauck is a gifted, engaging writer who leads readers to the busy intersection where parenting and personal history meet. While the details of Lauck's story are strikingly unique, every mother will identify with her unvarnished view of motherhood and with the self-discovery that awaits each parent. --Barbara Mackoff

From Publishers Weekly

Lauck tells of her struggle to raise her children and come to terms with the circumstances of her own harrowing upbringing in short, captivating stories alternating between past and present. This is Lauck's third book, and it focuses less on her past than did Blackbird and its follow-up, Still Waters. The author recaps her life in snippets related to her present status as a wife and mother of two children. Her childhood was hard, to say the least: her mother died when she was seven, her father when she was nine, and her brother committed suicide in her first year of college; yet she's levelheaded and conscientious about the way her past will play out in relation to raising children. At one point she describes her laborâ€""A deep pain digs at my back and catches my breath. I want to keep looking back, but I can't anymore"â€"essentially summing up her theory that it's important not to endow children with parental history. Lauck is not self-indulgent and does not invoke pity; she does, however, command respect and provide inspiration as she honestly continues to teach herself how to be a mother, all the while fighting to listen to intuition. Through this exploration of motherhood, she ends up teaching readers something about raising children, keeping in mind that no matter how hard a parent tries to prevent it, a child is inevitably affected by his or her parents' past.
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Product Details

• Hardcover: 288 pages
• Publisher: Atria (April 6, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0743476387
• ISBN-13: 978-0743476386
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 5.8 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #866,404 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Heartwarming, not heartbreaking, May 2, 2004

By	E. Griffin (Wilton, CT, USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Show Me the Way is Jennifer Lauck?s third memoir, and continues to demonstrate her fine writing skills. Jennifer has an amazing ability to examine the best and worst of humankind through the eyes of her life, communicating tremendous joy and grief with clarity and honesty.

Blackbird: A Childhood Lost and Found is the story of Lauck?s early childhood, which began with adoption by two loving parents and quickly slid into horrible abuse after their deaths. Stillwaters follows Jennifer to her adoption by her father?s sister and through adolescence where resentment and anger took the place of love, caring, and compassion. Through both of these books, the reader senses Jennifer marking time until adulthood, freedom, and independence.

Show Me the Way delivers the next step of Jennifer?s journey as she and her husband start a family. Jennifer faces many of the same challenges as other women that are attempting to balance the roles of mother, wife, lover, and self. Interspersed with Jennifer?s depiction of the physical emotion of childbirth and rearing are recollections of Jennifer?s own childhood and the loss of her parents. The reader can almost feel Jennifer reaching back in time to her mother and father, both requesting and sending love and acceptance. Approaching the birth of her second child, Jennifer seeks to make sure her son will never hurt his younger sister. Wrapped through these conversations is the love Jennifer?s brother was afraid to feel and her sadness at his suicide in his early twenties.

After searching for adulthood for so long, Jennifer finally finds discovers it comes in fragments like fighting for your children with the pediatrician, or embracing a moment of child induced chaos during a Starbucks morning filled with people eager to get to their offices.

Show Me the Way is not as gripping or heartrending in the same way as Blackbird or Stillwaters, and it should not be. It would be too simplistic to call Jennifer a survivor, for her spirit and ability to envelope the reader into her heart is something more. Although Show Me the Way is strong enough to stand on its own, it is best read after Jennifer?s first two books so the reader can live Jennifer?s journey with her.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Complex, stirring, intense, May 25, 2004

By A Customer

With her flawless writing and sure hand, Lauck tells a painful story that isn't maudlin and doesn't beg for sympathy -- it just is. If you liked this book, you might try "An Egg on Three Sticks" by Jackie Moyer Fischer, "Sights Unseen" by Kaye Gibbons, and "A Girl in Parts" by Jasmine Paul.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Unique Point of View, March 4, 2007

By	C. M. COLLINS-BLUMS (Concord, NH) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I love Jennifer Lauck's life memoirs. The story of neglect she suffered was tragic, realistic and yet not sensationalized. She didn't need to embellish her story to make it stong and memorable. This collection of observations is more current than past memoirs but no less strong and moving.