Slow Motion: A Memoir of a Life Rescued by Tragedy

Slow Motion: A Memoir of a Life Rescued by Tragedy
Dani Shapiro
Harper, Jan 2010, $14.99
ISBN: 9780061826696

Raised by Orthodox Jewish parents in the New York City suburban part of New Jersey, Dani Shapiro gave up Sarah Lawrence to be a trophy girlfriend to an older married attorney though Lenny Klein is the stepfather of her BF. One call while she enjoys a San Diego spa changes everything into before and after. Aunt Roz tells her that her mom and dad were in a car accident; both are in ICU at Overlook Hospital in Summit; no one has called her father’s other daughter from his first marriage while a blizzard shuts down the airports. Uncle Hy tells has that her dad is in a coma and her mom may never walk again. Adding to her fears and suddenly found maturity is the blizzard has shut down the New York airports.

This is a fascinating heart wrenching memoir because the tragic incident proves a revelation for Dani Shapiro as no miracle saves the day yet she rises to the occasion with a maturity her family would not have believed she possessed prior to the accident. Readers will cry on at least two occasions re her father seeing her mother for the first time after the accident and her chat with her father in the cemetery obviously after his death. She realizes what her parents taught her about what matters in life and death is the truth.

Harriet Klausner