Up Home Again is a tender record of the struggles, regrets and longings of a middle-aged woman as she strives to better her situation, to reclaim rhythms and freedoms that have been lost. O'Leary brings generosity of heart and clear-eyed honesty as she records her efforts to reshape and redefine her life. She is just so incredibly likable. What a beautiful, honest, astute portrait of a life. No epiphanies, no perfect cures. Instead, a life lived carefully, thoughtfully, generously. We come away from this story deeply moved by the tenacity and quiet courage of the writer. Her sharp, dry wit made me laugh out loud. A fine memoir. - Meredith Hall, author of the memoir Without a Map and the novel, Beneficence.
When children lose a parent as a child, as poet Ellie O’Leary describes in her sensitive memoir Up Home Again, (she was ten and her mother 56) it’s a significant landmark to live beyond that age. For O’Leary, this time in her life coincides with a great unraveling of work, health, finances, and marriage that leads her to return to face her childhood in a small town in mid-coast Maine. Her memoir moves seamlessly between the lonely girl ‘from away’ in Freedom Village, and her adult self as she wrestles with old insecurities and doubts. O’Leary deep dives into three critical mid-life years to reveal vivid memories, despair, and learning. As she re-discovers Maine’s beauty, and appreciates the steadiness of her family, she is filled with an abundance of gratitude, which will launch her into the satisfying life she lives now as a writer, traveler, teacher, and supportive mother.
As a mid-coast Maine writer, I know the roads O’Leary drives as she explores Maine once more, and I won’t ever drive through Freedom again without thinking of the girl, in her plaid skirt and knee socks, living next door to the principal who would support her getting into Bates College. When I pass the small post office, I’ll imagine her eruptive joy on getting her financial aid packet that meant she was really on her way. Up Home Again is an authentic chronicle of coming full circle, and we cheer her on to a well lived life. - Elizabeth Garber, memorist and poet, former Poet Laureate of Belfast, Maine.
