Kelly Corrigan opens her memoir, The Middle Place, with "The thing you need to know about me is that I am George Corrigan's daughter, his only daughter." But as you read through Corrigan’s stories and antidotes, you learn that she is so much more than just her father’s daughter. She is a mother, a wife, a sister, a writer, a non-practicing Catholic, a world traveler, and, as much of the book is dedicated to describing, before the age of 40, Corrigan is also a breast cancer survivor.
The books structure alternates between chapters depicting Corrigan’s childhood and early adult years, to her experiences with motherhood and marriage, to her present life as a cancer patient. The common thread through the entire memoir is Corrigan’s devotion to her larger than life, selfless, faithfully Catholic father, whom, even as an adult, Corrigan still runs to with all of life’s joys and challenges.
Thus comes the title of the book: The Middle Place. As Corrigan defines it, the middle place is “that sliver of time when childhood and parenthood overlap. One day you’re cheering your daughter through a swimming lesson or giving her a pat for crossing the monkey bars or reminding her to say ‘please,’ and the next, you’re bragging to your parents about your newest trick—a sweet potato recipe, a raise at work, a fix for your ant problem. It’s a giant Venn diagram where you are the only member of both sets.”
Through humorous and touching stories, Corrigan depicts this dichotomy, without sounding holier than thou or preachy. Quite the contrary, in order to properly praise her father, Corrigan often draws light to her flaws, whether they are a propensity towards vanity, her less than stoic demeanor, or her party girl past. More than just a homage to a great father, The Middle Place takes readers on the emotional journey of what it’s like to not only be a young woman who loses her breast and hair to cancer, but also her hope of having more children. It has the ability to draw readers in with its smooth narrative format, and keep readers captivated through its well woven true stories of growing up and shifting from the roll of child to parent and back again.
Those who enjoy The Middle Place might also enjoy reading John Grogan’s The Longest Trip Home or Frank McCourt’s Angela’s Ashes, both of which tell the story of growing up Catholic in a family with strong parental figures.