Splinters: Another Kind of Love Story by Leslie Jamison
After the birth of her first child, Leslie Jamison finds that home is no longer a place she wants to be. She pushes her daughter’s stroller through art museums to avoid spending time with her husband, whose coldness has become unbearable. Splinters: Another Kind of Love Story is about divorce, motherhood, and the loneliness of becoming a single mother.
There are many love stories within Splinters. Jamison reflects on her whirlwind romance with her ex-husband and past relationships that were defined by her addiction. She tries to find new love post-divorce. But the true love in this story is Jamison’s growing love for her daughter, for her art, and for herself.
Like her essay collections, Leslie Jamison’s newest is heart-wrenchingly vulnerable and introspective. Without another subject to orbit besides her own feelings, Splinters feels less grounded than Jamison’s past work. But her prose is so good it doesn’t matter.
Reviewed by Emma Radosevich, collection development librarian, Whatcom County Library System
(Originally published in Bellingham Alive June/July 2024 issue.)