Rating: 
I decided to read The Middle Place after reading another review I came across on the Internet. It sparked my interest because it is about a woman a few years older than me who found out she had breast cancer.
While I don’t have any close relatives that I know of with breast cancer, I do have a few friends who have had cancer, and some who are still dealing with it; however, I also relate to this book on another level. That level of having your world turned topsy-turvy by events that you cannot control.
For me, it was watching helplessly as my mother got sick as her liver failed and stopped filtering her blood. This meant that many days she stopped acting like herself. As the toxins affected her brain, she also failed to remember things old and new, and at times it felt as though someone had stolen my mother and left a shell of a person that tried to remember and tried to function, but often times, could not. I quickly found myself in a six-month nightmare of doctor’s visits, tests, and scans, while also trying to balance school and work.
Kelly Corrigan’s book The Middle Place explores this odd time in life when you are no longer just the child, but you are also the parent, either to your own children—or like me—to one of your parents. It is the time just before you grow up. And usually, this growing up is prompted by an event that changes everything, something that forces your hand, that makes it impossible to ever be the same again. For Kelly, this all came about when she found out she had breast cancer. And not long after her diagnosis, she finds out that her beloved father has cancer as well.
I loved how this book explored the relationship Kelly has with her family, how she relies on her father for emotional support, and how her mother was such a stabilizing force. I loved reading about how Kelly dealt with her father’s cancer and how she begins to realize there are some things you cannot control or manage no matter how hard you try. I loved reading her response to the friend who had no idea her hair was short because she had cancer. I loved reading about how she responded to her overly optimistic friends who knew she had cancer, but had no idea of how it had affected her.
This book is fresh, witty, and real. Read this book because it is a great story. Read this book because the writing is wonderful. But most importantly, read this book if you have ever found yourself in switched around roles, and you think you might know what it is like to be in the middle place. Trust me. You won’t regret it.
P.S. The audiobook is fantastic as well.
If you’ve had a chance to read this book, or if you have any thoughts about it or this subject, I’d love to read your comments.
Book: The Middle Place
Author: Kelly Corrigan
ISBN: 978-1401303365
Publisher: Voice 2008
Source: Purchased (Review Policy)
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
Wow. Great review. I’m hooked and putting this on my to-read list! I’m extremely curious about her responses to people. I’m hoping this book may show me how to best be a friend to someone living through a life-altering event like this. Thanks for sharing some of your, very appropriate, story as well.
Great review. I read this awhile back and had the same reaction. She did a wonderful job capturing that feeling of in-between and the confusion and fear that can go hand-in-hand with it.