The Orchard, Theresa Weir

The Orchard: A Memoir by Theresa Weir
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I very rarely read memoirs. Usually, they're just too much like a play-by play of a stranger's life, and often a wall of privacy is all too clearly visible in the story.

That's not the case with The Orchard. This memoir reads like a great work of fiction. I even had to flip back to the cover when I was a few chapters in to double check that this was, in fact, a memoir. The characters were so gripping, and the circumstances so incredibly fascinating, that I got swept up in the story just as I do with fiction.

Theresa Weir shares her story with the perspective of an accomplished writer. She bares all, and lays the flesh open for us to feel the wounds as well. I wanted the story to change course so badly at times that it killed me to know these people were real, this damage was permanent, and for once I couldn't assuage myself with the notion that the story was just make-believe. Crushing.

If all memoirs were this incredible, I'd read them all the time.

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