About book Saving Graces: Finding Solace And Strength From Friends And Strangers (2006)
I saw Elizabeth Edwards on I think Booknotes. It was an extended interview and she was talking about her book. What made me want to buy it was here quote regarding the loss of her son. "I have sometimes talked about the strange gift that comes with the awful tragedy of losing a child. I had already been through the worst, I believed; we all had, and I had the gift of knowing that nothing will ever be as bad as that." When she was diagnosed with breast cancer within days of the presidential election, she knew that as bad as that sounds she would have time to deal with it. This is the story of her life as the daughter of a career service man who lived all over the world to the wife of the vice-presidential candidate - with a little law school and career along with motherhood thrown in. Their son Wade was killed instantly in a freak car accident his junior year of high school. One of her biggest fears is that he will be forgotten. The chapters on his death and their healing process were wrenching: their daughter sleeping in their room, setting up a computer lab in his name, visiting the cemetery, staying involved in the lives of his friends, deciding to have more children at 46 years of age. In the natural order of things, we will probably bury our parents, and we know that someday we will mourn a spouse or vice-versa. But no one expects to outlive their child. They had a sculpture made and placed at the high school. On it was inscribed what Wade wrote in Latin class at the end of his sophomore year: "The modern hero is a person who does something everyone thinks they could do if they were a little stronger, a little faster, a little smarter, or a little more generous. Heroes in ancient times were the link between man and perfect beings, gods. Heroes in modern times are the link between man as he is and man as he could me." This was a young man that was going to do something with his life. He had already won a national speech prize among his other accomplishments. It was interesting to read about the campaigns and the election to the senate. Elizabeth was paired with Lynda Johnson Robb as her more experienced senate spouse. Lynda had lived around the capitol many years of her life, so she would take her places that others might not get to go and even when security would try to chase them away, she would say things like, "I just want to show her this historic desk." When the senate spouses were giving their annual luncheon for the first lady, they were going to have a workday to set it all up. Elizabeth showed up in overalls and tennis shoes ready to work. She didn't realize that a conference staff sets things up and this was another get together for the spouses and they were not dressed in overalls and tennis shoes.I enjoyed this book a lot. She is only a few years older than me, so other than the fact that she lived all over the world and I lived in one state, the times were the same. I would think I would stop at the next chapter and then it was just too interesting, I didn't want to put the book down. I think this she is an extremely warm, kind and humble, down-to-earth woman.
To say that I was moved by this autobiography is a huge understatement; I even cried on the airplane while I was reading it. Just like you know that the Titantic will eventually sink when you watch the movie, you know that she eventually dies of cancer (and you might already know before reading the book that they had a teenage son die in a car accident in the 1990's) and that her husband cheated on her (which is NOT mentioned in the book...it was published in 2006, so it might have preceeded her/the public finding out about that, or she decided to not air such topics in this book). That absolutely does not make this book less worthwhile to read. She was born a "military brat" and lived in Japan (repeatedly) in the post-WWII/post-bombing 1950's, she went to law school and was a practicing attorney for several years (read: not a politician's trophy wife), she campaigned as vigorously as her husband (even when she found out she had cancer)...this woman is an amazing role model and an emotional pillar of strength.A fair amount of the book deals with her discussing her son's death, and how it affected her life (and her family). Those that have not experienced the death of an immediate family member (spouse/parent/sibling/child) might struggle with this section, because she is expressing how she truly felt, and it's very raw emotion. You need to possess some level of emotional maturity to be able to stomach reading that, because it will break your heart. But, on the other hand, the fact that she was able to get through that period, support her husband's political career, be open to having more children, and fight cancer with a vengence illustrates her will to keep on living and to not spend every day of the rest of her life sitting at her son's gravesite at the cementary.
Do You like book Saving Graces: Finding Solace And Strength From Friends And Strangers (2006)?
I think Elizabeth Edwards is a lovely writer, and I related to the way she thinks about the world and the value of community and connections. The driving force of her life is the loss of her 16-year-old son and the book deals with her grief, how she coped with it and channeled it into various campaigning. It actually might be a good book to recommend to someone who has lost a child, but it might be tricky to do so given the author's perceived political nature (to me she writes more as a mother than a politician) and then the John Edward's scandal (which came out after this book was written).
—Mary Robinson
To be honest I only read this book to find Elizabeth Edwards' response to Andrew Young's book "The Politician". Ms. Edwards discussed many painful things in this book, especially the death of her son Wade in great detail, but not once did she discuss her husband's infidelity. The book was written as though that period of her life never happened. It was interesting to see her perspective of life on the campaign trail. I didn't realize that she played a large role the campaign. Seeing that she was a wife that had to be groomed was an aspect of First Lady hopefuls that we don't usually see.Not a bad read...
—Anita Dawson
I saw Elizabeth Edwards interviewed on Oprah some time ago and I was interested in reading her book. I was interested in the personal aspects of Elizabeth's story. Being Australian I didn't know her (or her husband) from the Presidential campaign.I really enjoyed the book. I liked Elizabeth's conversational style of writing. I cried over the loss of her son and the impact on her family. I was fascinated by her desciption of Usenet and the grief support group she joined (Usenet newsgroups being o
—Rachael
