I read Kelly Corrigan’s second memoir, Lift, in one sitting, and wished it would go on forever. Lift, a pastiche of Corrigan’s family life told through several insightful, elegant, sometimes heart-wrenching vignettes is imbued with a perception and candor that is Corrigan’s hallmark. This is a woman who knows what’s important in life, who knows when to ask questions, when to take notes, and when to put the pen down. It was Corrigan’s deposition-like questioning which earned her the title of the book. During one such session, a friend’s husband who loves to hang glide revealed that lift is what one gets when, while hang gliding, you encounter an upward force that counteracts the force of gravity, a change in the direction of a moving stream of air. In the sport of hang gliding, it’s your sole method of propulsion. His description, more dangerous than his wife knew or had cared to admit, and Corrigan’s retelling of the moment her friend realizes the danger her husband periodically subjects himself to is demonstrative of Corrigan’s brilliance as a writer. In a sentence, a single snapshot of their lives, she reveals the scope of their relationship, exposing both strength and vulernability with a simple turn of phrase. This ability to weigh life in words and to make it universal is the mark of a fine writer.
Lift is ostensibly a letter to Corrigan’s daughters, something for them to have when they reach a certain age, or maybe one day when their mother is gone. Perhaps it was Corrigan’s bout with breast cancer that started her thinking about things. She chronicled that experience, interlaced with her own childhood stories, in her first book, The Middle Place. Or maybe it was the horror of ovarian cancer which cost her not only her ovaries, but the chance for more children, something she says she may never get over. Whatever the genesis, Corrigan’s cancer allowed her to let people in and do for her as she never could before. As a result, she doesn’t look at life the way most people do. She knows that the long haul could be short indeed, and she views each moment through her close up lens -- Corrigan is also an excellent photographer -- knowing that it’s a crap shoot, that we could get just this one day or 10,000 more, and soaking it all in while it’s there in front of her. I met her briefly at a Jr. League Author’s Luncheon in Lancaster, Pennsylvania; the woman has an uncanny ability to connect with everyone she meets, size them up in a few seconds and give them exactly what they need -- no veils or hidden doors, just open communication and full on love -- as if there’s not a moment to lose. At first you think she might be BS’ing you, or that maybe she’s looking at the world through rose-colored glasses, but then you realize she’s popped out the lenses and there’s nothing obstructing her view. Plus, like her writing, she’s funny as hell.
Lift is not a memoir in the traditional sense, but a brief historic family interlude told through its still strong, still beating heart center. You can read Lift in an afternoon, but like Corrigan herself, you’ll remember it for a lifetime.
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