Upon receipt of “9 ½ Narrow” by Patricia Morrisroe, I made a
mental note to take greater care when clicking my way through Goodreads and
Library Thing’s Early Reviewers.
Everything from the cover to the synopsis made me want to pretend I
never received this. As a middle-aged
man with a strong dislike for exposed feet and a shoe collection that includes
exactly two pair of New Balance running shoes, I could not imagine making much
progress with this thing. Wow, was I
wrong! I couldn’t put this book down,
finishing the whole thing in two evenings.
This is a very funny first-class autobiographical effort. Yes, the author uses shoes, especially early
in the book, as a connecting thread through her life story, but not in a way
that overwhelms her very well written personal story and alienates crabby old men
like me. The Sopranos is an organized
crime story that is really about family, and this is a shoe story that is
really about family. The central
interaction is between the author and her mother, and while abrasive on the
surface, was always tender and loving in a modern sort of way. After finishing the book I wondered if the
author would have portrayed her mother in quite the same way had she still been
alive. I believe the answer is yes, only
based on the way her sister Emily is depicted, probably deservedly so.
Despite all the foreign-to-me shoe terminology and designers,
I was envious of the life of travel and interesting relationships. This is the best memoir of its type that I
have read since Jeanette Walls’ “The Glass Castle.” Thank you for sending me a copy!!
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