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The Story of My Father: A Memoir Audiobook
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(3.10) - 216 listener ratings
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In the fall of 1988, Sue Miller found herself caring for her father as he slipped into the grasp of Alzheimer's disease. She was, she claims, perhaps the least constitutionally suited of all her siblings to be in the role in which she suddenly found herself, and in The Story of My Father she grapples with the haunting memories of those final months and the larger narrative of her father's life. With compassion, self-scrutiny, and an urgency born of her own yearning to rescue her father's memory from the disorder and oblivion that marked his dying and death, Sue Miller takes us on an intensely personal journey that becomes, by virtue of her enormous gifts of observation, perception, and literary precision, a universal story of fathers and daughters. James Nichols was a fourth-generation minister, a retired professor from Princeton Theological Seminary. Sue Miller brings her father brilliantly to life in these pages-his religious faith, his endless patience with his children, his gaiety and willingness to delight in the ridiculous, his singular gifts as a listener, and the rituals of church life that stayed with him through his final days. She recalls the bitter irony of watching him, a church historian, wrestle with a disease that inexorably lays waste to notions of time, history, and meaning. She recounts her struggle with doctors, her deep ambivalence about many of her own choices, and the difficulty of finding, continually, the humane and moral response to a disease whose special cruelty it is to dissolve particularities and to diminish, in so many ways, the humanity of those it strikes. She reflects, unforgettably, on the variable nature of memory, the paradox of trying to weave a truthful narrative from the threads of a dissolving life. And she offers stunning insight into her own life as both a daughter and a writer, two roles that swell together here in a poignant meditation on the consolations of storytelling. With the care, restraint, and consummate skill that define her beloved and best-selling fiction, Sue Miller now gives us a rigorous, compassionate inventory of two lives, in a memoir destined to offer comfort to all sons and daughters struggling-as we all eventually must-to make peace with their fathers and with themselves.
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"This had new insights on Alzheimer's that I had not come across in other books. Well written and insightful about a daughter's experience with a father who has the disease. Thanks, Carol, for the recommendation. "
— Becky (4 out of 5 stars)
The Story of My Father Listener Reviews
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" A tough read...but worth it. "
— Marnie, 1/23/2014 -
" A touching and realistic non-fiction account of caring for her father through Alzheimer's disease. "
— Ellen, 1/18/2014 -
" This too can be a tough read due to the subject matter. I attended a reading given by the author, which added to my appreciation for the book. "
— Robin, 1/17/2014 -
" I listened to the audio version of the story. This story looked interesting to me because of losing my father and wanting to write about him some day. "
— SueAnn, 12/6/2013 -
" An honest portrayal of the loss of a father. Sue Miller captured the double loss Alhzeimer's creates in the lives of families. Deeply touching. "
— Laurie, 11/23/2013 -
" Still love a good sad memoir about illness. "
— Carolynmora, 10/12/2013 -
" I love Sue Miller. She usually writes fiction but this one is nonfiction, the account of her father's decline into alzheimer's. A beautiful book, especially for anyone who has a geriatric parent. "
— Jandy, 6/19/2013 -
" An honest portrayal of the loss of a father. Sue Miller captured the double loss Alhzeimer's creates in the lives of families. Deeply touching. "
— David, 12/13/2012 -
" In retrospect, MS. Miller thinks that proximity of care facility, close to loved ones, should be a top priority. Not sure where her guilt comes from. "
— Lucy, 9/14/2012 -
" This had new insights on Alzheimer's that I had not come across in other books. Well written and insightful about a daughter's experience with a father who has the disease. Thanks, Carol, for the recommendation. "
— Becky, 7/7/2012 -
" Written more for the author's benefit than the reader's I think. Had some interesting scenes and issues. "
— Catherine, 4/2/2012 -
" I read this after burying my own father, who also had Alzheimer's Disease. It was a great comfort. "
— Patty, 11/2/2011 -
" This is a beautiful and heartbreaking book. "
— Jenny, 12/15/2010 -
" Still love a good sad memoir about illness. "
— Carolynmora, 7/21/2010 -
" This too can be a tough read due to the subject matter. I attended a reading given by the author, which added to my appreciation for the book. "
— Robin, 3/21/2010 -
" I listened to the audio version of the story. This story looked interesting to me because of losing my father and wanting to write about him some day. "
— SueAnn, 9/19/2009 -
" This is a beautiful and heartbreaking book. "
— Jenny, 4/25/2009 -
" I read this after burying my own father, who also had Alzheimer's Disease. It was a great comfort. "
— Patty, 4/7/2009 -
" Written more for the author's benefit than the reader's I think. Had some interesting scenes and issues. "
— Catherine, 6/10/2008 -
" A touching and realistic non-fiction account of caring for her father through Alzheimer's disease. "
— Ellen, 2/14/2008 -
" An honest portrayal of the loss of a father. Sue Miller captured the double loss Alhzeimer's creates in the lives of families. Deeply touching. "
— Laurie, 6/9/2007 -
" An honest portrayal of the loss of a father. Sue Miller captured the double loss Alhzeimer's creates in the lives of families. Deeply touching. "
— David, 5/8/2007
About Sue Miller
Sue Miller is the author of While I Was Gone, The Distinguished Guest, For Love, Family Pictures, Inventing the Abbotts, and The Good Mother, many of which made the New York Times bestsellers list.