Safekeeping: Some True Stories From a Life by Abigail Thomas
Nonfiction - Memoir
2000
Finished on November 26, 2025
Rating: 3.5/5 (Good)
Publisher's Blurb:
A beautifully crafted and inviting accounting of one woman's life, Safekeeping offers a sublimely different kind of autobiography. Setting aside a straight-forward narrative in favor of brief passages of vivid prose, Thomas revisits the pivotal moments and tiny incidents that have shaped her: pregnancy at 18, single motherhood of three by the age of 26, the joys and frustrations of her marriages, and the death of her second husband. With startling clarity and unwavering composure, Thomas tells stories made of mistakes and loyalties, adventures and domesticities, of experience both deeply personal and universal.
This is a book in which silence speaks as eloquently as what is revealed. Openhearted and effortlessly funny, these brilliantly selected glimpses of the arc of life are, in an age of too much confession, a welcome tonic.
This is the third book that I've read by Abigail Thomas. I first discovered her memoir A Three Dog Life in 2007 after reading about it on Nan's blog (Letters from a Hill Farm). I followed up with What Comes Next and How to Like It in 2016. Safekeeping was published in 2000 and provided me with greater insight into Abigail's earlier years, but I didn't care for it as much as her later works. The vignettes jump around in time, as well as point of view (first person, third person, etc.). This slim book reads a bit like a novel, and is just shy of 200 pages, so it's a quick read, but with little take-aways. I had planned to read Still Life at Eighty as soon as I finished Safekeeping, but I think I'll hold off. Maybe I'll re-read the two I loved and then finish up with Still Life at Eighty.
"An artful scatter of snapshot moments... revealing a life that's remarkable not for its events but for the way it's recalled, with rue, insight and wit." ~ Rocky Mountain News
"Razor-sharp pieces of radiant truth.... Not so much memoir as a stained-glass window of scenes garnered from a life. This is an unforgettable portrait of a grown-up woman who has learned to rejoice in being herself. Reading it, we feel the crazy beauty of life." ~ Anne Lamott, author of Bird by Bird
It's interesting that we enjoy authors' earlier or later works. For me, I loved Kingsolver's earlier books and Kristin Hannah's later books.
ReplyDeleteHelen, what will be interesting is when I go back to re-read Abigail's books that I loved many years ago. Will I find them as interesting and relateable? I want to read them again before I dive into Still Life at Eighty, which is her most recent release. All nonfiction, but I do think she might have written a novel many years ago. I agree with you about Kristin Hannah's books. Her early ones were pretty fluffy.
DeleteI think you read more memoirs than anyone else I know. I wonder how many memoirs you have read (or re-read) this year. I wonder what you favorite memoirs of all time would be.
ReplyDeleteDeb, they're my favorite type of nonfiction, that's for sure. This year I read nine. I'll put together a post about memoirs later next month. Thanks for the inspiration!
DeleteThanks to you and Nan, I added both of her later books to my tbr list years ago... and they're still there. Think I will read those before adding a third. You've been reading a lot of memoirs lately!
ReplyDeleteJoAnn, I'm looking forward to re-reading those two later publications before I dive into Still Life at Eighty. I hope they're as good as I remember! Yes, I had a great month of memoirs in November. My favorite type of nonfiction!
Delete