"Or am I wrong to believe that if we are fully alive, if we are still growing and changing, it is hard, so unfathomably hard, to reach the age of 50 with hands that are clean?"

An intimate and honest memoir about a woman struggling with feminism and fidelity, and how her ultimate decision to choose herself led to the destruction and rebirth of her family.

This memoir blew me away, no pun intended. Frangelo's writing is incredible. Deep, introspective, and altogether enrapturing, I found myself opening up to parts of her story I did not know I would relate to.

Talk about ripping open one's own interior... Initially I thought I'd be reading about a privileged white feminist justifying her decision to cheat on her husband. And she is, and she does. But this book was so much more than that.

Frangello dips her spoon in the cauldron of womanhood and stirs up the most intimate desires few have the gumption to addres. At times she can come off a bit existential but the bulk of her writing exposes her heart and soul. I was especially moved by the way she tackled abusive masculinity and chronicled her journey with breast cancer and chronic pain.

So moved was I that I sat at the beach finishing the last few pages while sobbing. Maybe even ugly crying.