Women Like Us: A Memoir

Product Information

However, there have been events and situations that have tested her and almost broken her at times.

Krik Krak’s epilogue isn’t so much a story as it is an internal conversation an unidentified woman has with herself. Knowing what we know about Edwidge Danticat’s personal history, the most probable narrator of “Women Like Us” is Danticat herself. Like the woman in the epilogue, Danticat also struggled with telling her parents her dreams of being a writer. When the narrator’s mother says, “the family needs a nurse,” the words sound like something Danticat’s own mother could’ve said to her (Danticat 220). And the woman’s determination to continue on writing despite her mother’s protestations, because she thinks if she doesn’t write the stories “the sky would fall on [her] head” (Danticat 222), sounds like it comes from personal experience. Women Like Us is a story of success and of hope but not without its trials, especially the first hurdle to becoming an author in the first place, the massive number of rejections from publishers (who must be cursing themselves now she has written so many books!). However, Amanda has a unique voice, warm and personable; you can easily relate to her experiences. This is not a dark tale of woe, though. The love shown by her family is immense, and her journey remarkable. This audio book is beautifully and emotively read by Amanda herself, as are all of her audio books. I giggled with her, I cried big fat tears for her. Best known for writing about fictional women, I wasn't too sure what to expect from Amanda Prowse's new book, her own memoir.

The Novels

Where do I start? What words can I use which will do this amazing, honest, inspiring autobiography? If I was to ever have the pleasure of being able to sit down with Amanda, I don't know what I would ask her. This book covered everything and more. I feel like I know her so well. I hate to admit that I've never previously read an Amanda Prowse book, but there was something about the title - Women Like Us, that I found appealing. I'm so glad I trusted my instinct. Like Amanda, I have always loved to write. Amanda Prowse, the author of “Women Like Us, A Memoir,” has written an honest and heartfelt story. I appreciate that the author shares her most intimate and revealing memories of her challenging life. Many women will be able to relate to many of the topics that are discussed.

While her life may be excellent and a dream in many ways, this book also shows that not everything has been so easy. She has lived through many trials and tribulations, some of which have almost broken her. Medical conditions, multiple surgeries, loss, abuse, and multiple miscarriages. Keep on writing Mandy as I know you have many more fabulous stories in that great filing cabinet brain of yours. Amanda’s story is beautifully written, inspiring on so many levels and highly relatable. I felt that what I was reading was so brave, bittersweet and honest. It is a book that every woman should read. It encourages you to always be yourself, to know that you are worthy of love and happiness and great things!

Newsletter

Amanda usually writes fiction but I had also read 'The Boy Between' which was her first non-fiction. That too was a fantastic book but the subject matter in The Boy Between was quite dark so didn't allow for the humour that comes out in Women Like Us. Both were great, just different. It also leapt out at me that Women Like Us was very conversational so it was like having a coffee with a friend. Remember God is in the detail The stronger our impression of something happening to a particular person at a particular time in a particular place, the greater our sense of recognition. Death is often the basis of life writing. But it can’t be all gloom: misery memoirs have a bad name. Let there be light – playful digressions and a graveside joke or two. Self-pity wins no friends. Even elegies have to entertain. You can be true to your grief without being maudlin.

Amanda Prowse has opened up about her life in a way that I feel will relate to many, many women out there. I have never read any books by this author before so I didn’t know anything about her before I started reading this memoir. I was going in blind, which for me, is always exciting! Plus, I love reading about other people's lives and experiences, their ups and downs, the lessons they have learned so far and how their lives have shaped them into the person that they are today. Be strict about point of view If you’re writing from the vantage point of a child, create a voice that sounds like a child (in tone and perception if not vocabulary).Give signposts Find ways to help the reader along, especially if you have a complex plot and a large cast list. You’re our guide and we need to be able to follow you – and to trust you to tell us the truth. Trauma is often the trigger for a memoir: an abusive childhood, a life-threatening illness, the death of a parent or partner. It may be decades before the experience is written about, as with Lemn Sissay’s recent My Name Is Why, which recalls his years in the care system. According to Byron, it’s better that way – you need to wait till the pain has been processed: “While you are under the influence of passions, you only feel, but cannot describe them.” Then again, books composed in the immediate aftermath of a trauma aren’t necessarily worthless; it depends on the circumstances. And Amanda has come out of the other side, not necessarily unscathed, but a brighter, happier, more positive woman for it. Sometimes heartbreaking, often hilarious and alwaysentirely relatable, Prowse details her early struggles with self-esteem and how she coped with the frustrating expectations others had of how she should live. Most poignantly, she delves into her toxic relationship with food, the hardest addiction she has ever known, and how she journeyed out the other side.