MAY memoir of the month: A Beautiful, Terrible Thing.
When I was a kid, my mom used to take my little brother and I to the library to pick out a few books to read for the coming week. I adored the library. I could have stayed there for hours, flipping through books in the children’s section, but I could only check out a few books, not a hundred. How did I choose which books to take home?
One word, my intuition.
I would scan the rows of books and pull out all the titles and illustrated covers that spoke to me. Then, I would read snippets of the first few pages. Next, I would lay my final selections out in front of me, taking note of which ones I felt drawn to the most. Little by little, I would eliminate books, until I had my top three choices.
This is exactly how I ended up buying the book, A Beautiful, Terrible Thing: A Memoir of Marriage and Betrayal. I’m doing the exact same thing I did as a kid, picking out books that speak to me. This is an excellent book choice for a short vacation or a long plane ride. The chapters are short and gripping.Jen Waite whisks you right into her world, providing only the details you need to get right into this riveting story, and boy is it a story!
3 Reasons To Pick Up A Beautiful, Terrible Thing:
- It’s a memoir that reads like a murder mystery.
If you’re into True Crime, you will love this book. It reads more like a fiction novel as it tells the story of Jen Waite’s marriage to a man that turned out to be a psychopath. What I appreciated about this book is how in-depth Waite wrote about her love for this man she eventually married. It was a beautiful thing (title foreshadow here) to read about Waite’s relationship to a guy who was kind, attentive, and loving. It then became a terrible thing to see how he tore her heart to pieces. To watch Waite’s husband unravel into a man she didn’t recognize became a real life version of Clue. Why did he betray her? As the story continues on, Waite dives deep into research about what it means to be a psychopath. She provides more than a story, but also an educational lesson into what this mentally unstable condition looks like and what it means to live with somebody who is not mentally stable. - This book paints a vivid description of the grueling challenges that come with being a single mom.
After Waite has her daughter, she ends up transitioning from being a married woman to a single mom. (Don’t worry this is not a spoiler!) I don’t often find a story about a single mother who was married to a man that turned out to be a psychopath. A Beautiful, Terrible Thing is a story about motherhood we don’t always see. Waite’s experience as a single mother is so painful because while she is forced to raise a child on her own, she is also discovering things about her husband she never knew. Deceit. Adultery. Lies. Yet, what nearly destroys her is the loss of her self-esteem. Waite takes us on a journey, revealing the setbacks low self-esteem have on a mother when she is suddenly forced to raise a child by herself. - It’s about a marriage.
When Jennifer married her dream man, she had no idea it would go south. How did the man she fell in love with turn out to be a psychopath? This is a fascinating story about a husband that turned out to be a psychopath. But was he born this way? Were there red flags along the way? This is what is so compelling about this book…all the little things that happened between this married couple, that slowly turned into big things.
After I finished the book, I was reminded how hard a single mother must work to build herself back up. I had newfound insights into what it means to be a psychopath, a mental health condition not often talked about, and I had a deep appreciation for all the women in this world, Waite included, who are forced to pivot their entire life when an unexpected tragedy like mental illness creeps in.
