Elizabeth Crane is one of my favorite writers. I credit her with teaching me I *do* like short stories. I discovered her with her first collection, so glowingly reviewed in Entertainment Weekly in 2004(!), that I read a short story collection. I've read every book of hers since. This one, her first memoir, is about the demise of her marriage. I texted a recently divorced friend while reading it that divorce memoir written by female writers I adore is my new favorite nonfiction microgenre. Crane's writing is, of course, superb. I was more impressed with her ability to tell the story of her marriage and her shifting and varying emotions so clearly. Utterly amazing.

This memoir is written with a distant and slightly askew point of view. And, the narrative itself is rambling and disjointed. All of this gives the memoir a feeling of looking at the action through a cloud. Interesting, but for me, just too off putting to read.

Wow unfortunately, this whole concept of a book did not work for me. I love reading memoirs, so I thought I would enjoy it, but this format does not work for me at all.

This Story Will Change is not your typical divorce memoir. Elizabeth Crane writes about the real time events leading up to her divorce in a way that places the reader in her shoes. We move through moments being guided by the narration and not being given any more information than the direction we’re headed in - the demise of this marriage. Following the cool, calm and collected manner of the writer’s internal dialogue we are made to feel unsure about what emotions are coming up- are they ours as readers or are they Elizabeth’s?

This book has a narrator as blank slate approach. We don’t know the narrator’s motivations or her general or specific feelings about much. She talks about the events of her life from a detached point of view splitting off all raw feelings and projecting them onto the reader. This was an experience!

As readers we are forced to hold space for our own reactions and judgements to a marriage as it is chipped away by the mundanity of everyday life. We are not allowed to hide behind the characters in this story. Though this reads like autofiction it is categorized as memoir and made for a unique reading experience. At times it mirrored the actual disassociation one feels navigating the unpredictable and uncomfortable course of separating from a lifetime partner. It was quite genius actually!

Thank you to the author and publisher for the E-ARC copy. This is one you won’t want to miss if you’re into eclectic and immersive reading experiences.

Dramatic. Insightful.

Thanks to author, publisher and Netgalley for the chance to read this book. While I got the book for free, it had no bearing on the rating I gave it.