Taking My Life Back

Starred review from February 13, 2017
It is impossible to remain unmoved by Gregory’s emotional, open memoir of surviving the Boston Marathon bombing in 2013. Aided by Flacco (The Road Out of Hell), she recounts, sometimes graphically, her terrifying experience from the moment the bomb exploded near her and her young son. From the start, she identifies herself as a Christian whose past adversities may have helped her find strength to overcome her injuries, both physical and mental. The prose is straightforward, and her voice is strong and self-aware when she suggests that being abused left her with a tendency to react with helplessness. There’s energy and good humor behind the pain when she describes the “Sad Skill”—“pushing honesty under the carpet”—that she developed in response to the disconnect between her father’s public and private personas. Being mistreated by her father, a preacher, led her to reject Christianity for a long time, but she found a role model in her mother, who “just lived .” The arc of the story moves from the bombing to a “happy continuation” in the conclusion. This is a truly feel-good book that doesn’t stint on the challenges that life throws at us.