Review of Memorial Drive: A Daughter's Memoir by Natasha Trethewey

*Memorial Drive: A Daughter's Memoir* by Natasha Trethewey (2020). Published by Ecco.

If you’re new here, and stumbled upon this blog through the mythical powers of the Internet, welcome! I know a lot of visitors to my website are people who randomly come upon this website through search engines like Google, but I also do have a lot of visitors who come back. Regardless: my name is Ashley, and I started this blog in order to keep track of everything I’m coming across in the world.

I recently fell into a spell of unemployment probably during the worst time to be unemployed, as it was very hard to find a job. I was applying to hundreds of jobs, getting interviews, but no offer was manifesting for me in the near future. So during this time, I had a lot of free time, and spent a good chunk of it chipping away at the blog.

As a book blogger, something I’ve always been super clear about and dedicated towards promoting are local libraries. I know having access to a good library is a privilege, and there are countries where people don’t really have access to books at all. I am so grateful every day that I have access to a decent library system, especially in today’s world.

I truly like buying books when I can, but when money is tight and room is limited, I stick to the library. I think libraries are such an incredible free resource here in the United States, and we take them for granted because a lot of Americans can’t fathom that most countries don’t have this much access to books, movies, and so much more openly.

Having access to Libby though has especially helped me while I was unemployed, especially as I didn’t have the budget to pay for books or audiobooks. I was checking out a lot of books during this time to listen to while I was applying to jobs, or even cooking dinner or doing chores.

Memorial Drive was one of the audiobooks I checked out during this time. I’ve been meaning to read this memoir for a long time, as I’m familiar with Trethewey’s poetry, but like many things it often got pushed to the side in favor of whatever I was interested more at the time.

Let’s get into the review! I don’t want to ramble too much in the intro.

The story of Natasha Trethewey’s mother and her eventual murder at the hands of her ex-husband.

This is a memoir where you often go into it knowing what happened—it also isn’t a secret or random plot point that appears at the end of the book. Trethewey acknowledges early on, and even in the synopsis, that her mother was murdered by her former stepfather on Memorial Drive.

Because of this, it becomes a memoir shaped by grief and in honor of her mother. Trethewey goes back in time and traces the origins of her own existence as a mixed race child. Her mother, who was raised and lived when the United States was actively segregated in the South, had this fear about how her child was going to be perceived and attacked in a world that was actively anti-Black.

Trethwey’s birth father was white and on the faculty of a major American university at the end of his life, but her parents didn’t stay together. It was her mother getting together with her stepfather that would set the trajectory for the rest of her life and death, and, in some ways, Trethwey might blame herself for the events that were to come.

How her stepfather treated her, as she described, as a catalyst for her mother wanting to pack up and leave that relationship. And it’s an unsurprising decision once you actually read what happened inside the home, and one that I could see myself making and not expecting the outcome.

Regardless of what’s to come, one of the curious aspects of this memoir is how Trethewey reflects on the corridors and corners of her upbringing and girlhood. We see beyond the tragedy that defines the end of her mother’s life to see what she was like alive, as well as the hopes and dreams she had for her own child.

The beginning of Trethwey’s life was largely spent in Mississippi, which seems like a much happier and simpler time. She’s an adult looking back on these events, but I imagine she was shielded at the time from what her mother was worried about, which comes into play about the discussion of interracial marriage in the 1960s, which was finally allowed in 1967 across the country, and how those children would be seen as Black or “impure” no matter what in the eyes of racism.

It’s when they move to Atlanta in search of more opportunity that her coming-of-age story ruptures, and everything begins to change. But still, throughout all of this, there’s the thread of a girl and her mother looking to face the world and whatever it’ll throw your way.

Overall Thoughts

Having been familiar with Trethewey’s work and literary output, I expected this to be well-written, but had no idea it was this well-written! I feel like she does an excellent job looking back on the past from a much older, wiser perspective, and probably around the same age her mother once was when she was killed.

At the same time, this is such a terrible story to recall and reflect upon, so I can see how writing this memoir might’ve been an act of release for the writer of everything that she’s kept inside of her. I haven’t read her personal poetry as much, so maybe she’s touched upon it there, but different genres open up different possibilities for how a story can go.

Anyways, I really enjoyed listening to and taking my time with this memoir. It’s such a gorgeous memoir and deserves all of the flowers it’s been getting the past few years.

Definitely pick it up at your local library or indie bookstore if you get the chance! I can see someone finishing this in a week or two.

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