Midstream

by Le Anne Schreiber

In her late thirties, Le Anne Schreiber left her position as Deputy Editor of the New York Times Book Review for a new and vastly different life in rural upstate New York. She wanted peace, the time to write and fish, and a chance to build into her life a different pace, different values. And then she learned that her mother had pancreatic cancer. This brilliant memoir bears witness, unflinchingly, to the wrenching details of her mother's illness and death and her own new beginnings. She brings to her observations of nature and her mother's death, precision, wonder, tenderness, speculation, and occasional outrage. Midstream is a compelling autobiography - deeply felt and unforgettable. (51/2 X 81/4, 320 pages, b&w photos)

Genres: Memoir, Nonfiction

309 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1996

Reviews

[Sue Kozlowski · Rating 3 out of 5]

Non-fiction. Good - a little slow. Very quiet person, agoraphobic, mother dies of cancer. Daughter was sports editor of NY Times. She moves to upstate NY and spends her time fishing.

[Mary Karpel-Jergic · Rating 4 out of 5]

A memoir of a daughter facing her mother's sickness and subsequent death. At times immensely moving, at others, quite harrowing as she recounts her mother's cancer, its treatments and her hospital stays. I found the switching between her fly fishing and country jaunts and her mother's sickness and family issues somewhat disconcerting.

[Carol Oberg · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really a memoir and a very good one. Hopefully some things have changed in hospice care since her mother's death. A great portrait of a family in crisis and how they go on.

[Joan · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love my Mom; she was my closest friend. When she died I was bereft, feeling like an orphaned child despite being 37 years old.
In Midstream, Le Anne Schreiber beautifully recounts her journey through mourning to building a new relationsip with her Dad. It is a story of a basically happy family, loss and readjustment. The author is a skillful, factual reporter-not one to use flamboyant prose- she writes from the heart and the book is very moving.