"Julie Doyle Cullen writes about grief the way the best memoirists do — with humor intact and sentimentality held firmly at bay. This book is honest in the way that only love can make you honest."
"I read this in two sittings and cried in both of them. Not because it's sad — though it is — but because it's so true. Cullen captures the absurdity of caregiving alongside its tenderness without flinching from either."
"Three women, three generations, one impossible year. The structure sounds simple but the execution is anything but. Cullen moves between voices with real grace, and the humor never feels like a dodge — it feels like survival."
"What strikes me most is how Cullen refuses to make her mother a saint or a symbol. Suzanne is a person — complicated, funny, difficult, beloved. That specificity is what makes the grief land."
"I gave this to my book club expecting a quiet read. We talked for three hours. There is so much here about what families owe each other, what we can ask for, and what we simply absorb."
Media inquiries
For press, interviews, and book club visits
Julie is available for interviews, readings, and book club conversations — in person in the Detroit area or virtually anywhere. Reach out directly.