"Splinters" is the debut memoir from best-selling author Leslie Jamison. Known for her memorable essay collections "The Empathy Exams" (Graywolf) and "Make it Scream, Make it Burn" (Little, Brown), "Splinters"-told in a hybrid, fragmented fashion, departs from the critical essay form to instead turn fully toward the interiority of motherhood as Jamison experiences it for the first time. This book, in which the reader observes a life cracked open by the birth of her daughter, moves forward and backward in time as Jamison's own marriage struggles to articulate itself in the aftermath of a fast and intense courtship. While the tension and their willingness to salvage its remainders is threaded throughout the story--at the heart, is one fully about the love of mothering, and of being mothered. Jamison's own is featured prominently throughout the text, and we see the way that parenting steeps and deepens this bonded triad as she transitions from being a daughter, to being a person with one. As with several of Jamison's essays in her previous collections, this book reflexively concerns her role as an art-maker and consumer. Most strikingly, it documents the act of reaching for making meaning of that which we encounter (Jamison evokes encountering artists like Judy Chicago, Lea Lublin ,and Wangechi Mutu), as well as making meaning from that which we create. The strength of this book as in all of Jamison's work is the vulnerability, reflexiveness, and depictions of the importance, challenges, and rewards of self-examination. Through these collective "splinters"--her daily comings and goings, meditative observations in museums, and life-changing moments, she demonstrates yet again, how the work of the personal can be made into meaningful reading.

Binged it in a day. Jamison at her brilliant best. Mesmerizing, insightful, honest, and oh-so-beautifully written. Thank you for the arc. I can't wait to put this in readers' hands.

i rarely read memoirs anymore because i get upset with how little agency the writer gives the other people- but, i feel like she was really fair to her ex and didn't blame him for most of what happened between them. the musician she dated, though - like, she gives enough clues that a vague search turns up who it is, and the intimate details she shares about him, man, let's just say i'm really glad i don't think anyone's ever gonna publicly write about me.
also, nothing to do with her or her book, but i personally just cannot bear to read any more quarantine stories or see it in fiction or on tv, so i skimmed most of that section.

A heartfelt memoir of love, loss, parenthood, and art. Jamison is a brilliant writer, and this was an engaging read. I enjoyed this as much as her essay collections.
Reviewed from an ARC provided by the Publisher and NetGalley.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an ARC of this book, releasing in February 2024!

Read this book in a single sitting! Leslie Jamison has, to me, an otherworldly ability to articulate feeling through her writing. As with her other books, I was constantly highlighting as I read. This book could be labeled as both a divorce and early motherhood memoir, but feels like it covers a lot more emotional ground. I really think she's one of the best nonfiction writers out there; easily a top 10 book of the year for me.

I can always fly through a book by Jamison, and this memoir was no exception. Brutal and compelling honesty about the nature of motherhood and divorce. Loved.

Insightful! This book held my attention and kept me engaged throughout. I've read all of Leslie Jamison's work and this is her best yet.

Such a lovely, self-aware, honest reflection on motherhood in the pandemic age. Jamison is clear about her priorities in a way that feels bracing and refreshing, even as she shows how difficult it is to observe them.

I was afraid I would struggle with this one because the motherhood canon is decidedly not for me. But per usual, Jamison's writing is just too good. Even the parts that felt a touch disjointed worked. Fetch the highlighters. (I got an ARC from NetGalley.)

As I was reading this book, I was also watching my two sons at an indoor play gym, constantly looking up to make sure they weren’t fighting, the little one’s diaper was dry, and the older hadn’t escaped through the emergency exit doors, which he has done in the past. They didn’t have my full attention, which Leslie Jamison beautifully suggests is “polluted attention.”

Leslie Jamison’s book embodies this struggle: the mom trying to make and appreciate art while also raising her kids to the best of her ability. It was fitting to read Leslie’s struggle to manage early motherhood and a respected writing career as if neither could impact each other. She talks of being obsessed with her daughter, her whole world, while also erasing her by forcing this little girl to coexist alongside an ambitious career. Can you have both? More importantly, can you have both when you are going at parenting alone?

SPLINTERS is about the end of Jamison’s marriage, and how she continues building her life as a single mom in the aftermath. She holds back a little in revealing what led to the end of her marriage, and for good reason. Leslie is more forthcoming in her previous memoir, THE RECOVERING, about the fraught relationship she had with her ex-boyfriend, Dave. But Leslie is more careful in SPLINTERS because there are children involved now, mainly her baby daughter, as well as her former stepdaughter, who is intentionally left out. We don’t get a ton of details on the demise of Leslie’s marriage, but her story is almost more powerful as a result. I felt the tension between her and her ex on every page. We only get a few shocking details of what went on between them, and it’s easy to imagine the rest. I trust Leslie has a good reason for omitting the million cuts that led to her divorce.

I enjoyed the parts about Leslie trying to date in the aftermath of the divorce, COVID, and beyond. I was intrigued by the rebound guy who came into her life shortly after she became a single mom, and how he represented a return to youthful infatuation for Leslie. Leslie doesn’t paint a rosy portrait of life as a single mother. There’s a lot of loneliness here, as well as a desire for a village we all desperately need. Motherhood is so physically demanding and draining, but sometimes, moms have to do it alone to give their kids their best.

Thank you Net Galley for the ARC. When it comes memoir writing, Leslie Jamison is as good as it gets. Every sentence, paragraph, and word is chosen with care and precision. She is the best we have.

Splinters is an astonishing piece of nonfiction. I read this over the course of a day--it blew me away! The memoir tracks Jamison's life as a new mother, then the difficult but necessary decision to leave her partner. She tackles motherhood, relationships, capitalism, art, the pandemic. She goes deep, her prose crystalline, striking. I could have read 1,000 more pages. Thanks to the publisher for the e-galley!

I love all of Jamison's work, and this book is no exception. Her writing is sharp, vivid and eloquent, and her gaze always penetrating. I would absolutely assign this book to my students.

To say that Leslie Jamison one of the most prolific writers I can think of would be an understatement. She writes about tough topics- addiction, alcoholism, eating disorders, divorce- in ways that make the reader read certain passages twice, provoking more thought.

Her latest is a memoir of the end of her marriage, her pregnancy, the ensuing separation and divorce from her husband (whom she identifies as "C"), and raising her daughter as a single mom.

Interspersed are vignettes from her childhood, experiences with her parents which she feels led to her adult traits.

She writes for and from her life. Writing about her feelings of love and then falling out of love with C, she explores what leads us to being in love and what being in love does for us. Writing about her struggles and joys of single parenthood, she details her conflicts and ecstasys of daily minutia bringing a deep wisdom and desire to learn- about her daughter and herself, and the effect her sober life has on her relationships.

There is depth to each feeling explored, each paragraph.