Flesh and Blood - Reflections on Infertility, Family, and Creating a Bountiful Life - A Memoir by N. West Moss

4.8 (4)
$25.95

Product Details

Web ID: 17693885

Honest, warm, and witty, this memoir reads like a chat with a dear friend sharing her insight and taking us along as she heals. Complete with family stories over cocktails and a praying mantis named Claude. "I drive and say to myself, if I am dying, if this is how I die, then this is how I die." When N. West Moss finds herself bleeding uncontrollably in the middle of a writing class, she manages to drive herself to the nearest hospital. Doctors are baffled, but eventually a diagnosis-uterine hemangioma-is rendered and a hysterectomy is scheduled. In prose both lyrical and unsparing, Moss takes us along through illness, relapse, and recovery, and as her thoughts turn to her previous struggles with infertility, she reflects on kin and kinship and on what it means to leave a legacy. Moss's wise, droll voice and limitless curiosity lift this narrative beyond any narrow focus. Among her interests- yellow fever, good cocktails, the history of New Orleans, and, always, the natural world, including the praying mantis in her sunroom whom she names Claude, and we learn about the inspiring women in Moss's family-her mother, her grandmother, and her great-grandmother-as she sorts out her feelings that this line will end with her.

  • Product Features

    • Suggested age range - Adult
    • Hardcover
    • Dimensions - 7.1" W x 4.9" H x 1.1" D
    • Genre - Diet, Health & Fitness
    • Publisher: Little, Brown and Company
    • Page count: 320
    • ISBN - 9781643750705
    • N. West Moss (Author)
    • Publication date: 10-12-2021
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Ratings & Reviews

4.8/5

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3 years ago
from Syracuse NY

You'll come out better for reading this memoir

“Happiness is an act of courage”- author “The past is never dead. It’s not even past”- Falkner I was stunned by this book and I wasn’t expecting it! N.West Moss put a face and a name to issues whispered about in “proper society”. She even discusses that in the book. She wasn’t going to share either her prognosis or the procedure but found she wasn’t alone when she did. Her setbacks and triumphs are real. Her family and even her neighbors and her pets are there to support her. And her ancestry shines through with stories of her past. I read this in a little more than a day. I am so glad I did. [ Disclaimer: I received this book from an outside source and voluntarily read and reviewed it]

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Customer review from barnesandnoble.com

3 years ago
from Oregon

Beautiful Memoir

Flesh & Blood is an emotional memoir of a journey through illness, infertility, miscarriage, healing and family. The author's resilience shows through with every written word of this book.

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Customer review from barnesandnoble.com

3 years ago
from Lowell, MA

Beautiful, Poetically-Written Memoir

Flesh & Blood by N. West Moss is a poetically-written memoir about the author’s struggles with her own body. Written in vignettes, the book centers on her hysterectomy, the life-threatening medical issues that lead up to it and the circuitous healing process afterwards. The short chapters made the book move quickly. I really liked the author’s delicate writing and spirituality. Though the author is an atheist, she is a keen observer of the world and has a philosopher’s soul. This book reminded me a bit of the memoir, Wintering: The Power of Rest & Retreat In Difficult Times by Katherine May. Moss imparts the importance of taking things at our own pace and appreciating the natural world and embracing patience. Moss’s 80-year old mother comes to help her convalesce following surgery and I adored reading about their relationship and how we as humans tenderly take care of each other. Throughout Flesh & Blood, we learn about the author’s life, from her ancestors and connection to New Orleans to her struggles with infertility and miscarriage. We also meet the author’s adorable husband, Craig; and Claude, a praying mantis who lives in her porch and exudes a stabilizing presence throughout the memoir. I really adored this beautiful book! Thank you Algonquin Books and NetGalley for providing this ARC.

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Customer review from barnesandnoble.com

3 years ago
from Minneapolis, MN

A beautiful memoir

This story begins with N. West Moss bleeding. This isn’t something new as a concept for her, but this time is different: she’s bleeding so much that as she drives herself to the hospital her brain is cycling through the possibilities about what could be happening and how things may unfold if she loses too much blood. Thankfully, those are questions that don’t need to be answered at the time, but it leads to the need for a surgery. Moss documents the time leading up to and after the surgery in a truly beautiful book that made me feel like Moss was a close friend. This is an absolutely beautifully written story. Moss writes in such an eloquent way that shows how she found beauty and happiness in a time that is also full of grieving. Perhaps one of my favorite aspects of this book is how Moss drew strength from the women in her life in the present and the past, and focusing on all the big and small acts of love in her life. (The monks down the street were perhaps the one example that made me the most emotional.) This book shows that, as Moss says herself “it turns out you can be filled to overflowing with grief and still be happy.” If you’re a fan of memoirs, you should definitely add this one to your TBR.

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  • Photo from devreighreads

Customer review from barnesandnoble.com