In 2008, critics hailed Robert Leleux’s (my husband's) coming-of-age Memoirs of a Beautiful Boy as a “laugh-out-loud tale of dysfunction and discovery” (Publishers Weekly), delivering “gallows humor with a sprightly flair” (New York Times). In The Living End: A Memoir of Forgetting and Forgiving, Robert casts a gimlet eye on how his grandmother’s unexpectedly funny decline into Alzheimer’s, became an occasion to reconcile with her daughter—Robert's colorful, knowing, Texas-beauty-queen-with-enhancements mother (whom I adore).
When Robert's grandmother, JoAnn, began exhibiting signs of Alzheimer’s, she’d been estranged from her daughter for decades. But while JoAnn lost a great deal of her memories and herself, she also forgot her old wounds and anger. While witnessing her decline was agonizing for Robert (“like watching The Miracle Worker backward”), he discovered that for his grandmother herself, it seemed almost liberating. Because “with no sense of time or memory, past and future cease to exist, along with all sense of loss and regret. Not to mention grudges and hurt feelings.” She simply forgot to be angry, and when she was reunited with her daughter after years of estrangement, their relationship was given a new life.
With Robert's unique talent for capturing the humor in the direst of circumstances, The Living End: A Memoir of Forgetting and Forgiving is a glowing tribute to a well-lived life, and to the way a seemingly unwelcome change in life’s circumstances can be a catalyst for love and forgiveness.
"The Living End is Robert Leleux's exceptionally moving
memoir about his beloved grandmother and his heroic caring for her as she slipped into the grip of Alzheimer’s. The book is at times hilarious, tender, and heartbreaking--further proof that Mr. Leleux is ripening into
one of the best prose stylists in America."
-- Pat Conroy, Author of The Prince of Tides & South of Broad
Want to learn more about Robert's first book,
The Memoirs of a Beautiful Boy?
