Synopses & Reviews
“I don’t know how Michele Weldon made wrestling, breast cancer, and single parenting tie together so naturally, so beautifully, but in fact each is a perfect metaphor for this book’s message of soulful triumph.” —Elizabeth Berg, New York Times–bestselling author, The Dream Lover
Deftly lacing heartbreak with humor and insight, Michele Weldon provides a potent antidote to the crazy, harried, single mom stereotype in Escape Points. Untethered from a comfortable, upper-middle-class life with a handsome but abusive attorney husband, Weldon relates the challenges and triumphs of the years that followed as she raised three growing sons alone in the face of cancer, an ambitious career, and the shadow of her ex. As she maneuvers through a complicated life of long daily commutes, radiation treatments, supporting three boys’ all-consuming high school wrestling careers, and trying to mitigate their hurt and resentment at an absent father, Weldon shows that single mothers, and their children, can succeed when others—neighbors, family, teachers, and in this case one incredible wrestling coach—step in to fill the void and the remaining parent stays the course with common sense and dutiful love.
Review
“Michele Weldon’s memoir of raising three sons in the absence of their father brims with candor, humor, anger, and abundant tenderness. In the face of daunting challenges, mother and boys find grace and resilience from unexpected sources: the wrestling mat, and the extraordinary high school coach who redefines what makes a family.” —Nancy Horan, New York Times–bestselling author, Loving Frank and Under the Wide and Starry Sky
Review
"With affable, heartfelt text, Weldon shares the intimate details of her trial-and-error parenting of three competitive wrestlers, each in varying stages of resentment over their father's heartless disinterest in them." —Kirkus Reviews
Review
“There are so many things to admire about
Escape Points. The honesty. The heart. The compulsive readability. I don’t know how Michele Weldon made wrestling, breast cancer, and single parenting tie together so naturally, so beautifully, but in fact each is a perfect metaphor for this book’s message of soulful triumph.”
—Elizabeth Berg,
New York Times bestselling author of
The Dream LoverReview
“
Escape Points is the riveting memoir of a mother and her sons, a compelling story of life, love, and family, told through the prism of the sport they adore, wrestling. Michele Weldon is a beautiful writer. This is a beautiful story.” —Christine Brennan,
USA Today sports columnist and ABC News, CNN, and PBS commentator
Review
“Journalist and single mother Weldon is the Everyperson voice of parents everywhere who are raising children on their own… for anyone who has been through a contentious divorce, or breast cancer, or child support battles, or kids’ wrestling matches and cauliflower ears or anything similar, Weldon’s voice will ring of truth and wisdom and hurt and, yes, the beauty of it all.” —Booklist
Synopsis
Michele Weldon understands the healing power of words. Written words. Words that come from deep within ourselves. Unedited thoughts. Uprooted recollections. Unsettled feelings.
She introduces the process of "scribotherapy" as a method of using one's own words to honor life's difficulties and blessings. It is a regimen Weldon expertly practices and shares in this instructive and very entertaining book--offering essays, exercises, and encouragement to awaken the writer in you.
Synopsis
Michele Weldon understands the healing power of words. Written words. Words that come from deep within ourselves. Unedited thoughts. Uprooted recollections. Unsettled feelings.
She introduces the process of scribotherapy as a method of using one's own words to honor life's difficulties and blessings. It is a regimen Weldon expertly practices and shares in this instructive and very entertaining book-offering essays, exercises, and encouragement to awaken the writer in you.
Synopsis
Award-winning journalist Michele Weldon provides a potent antidote to the harried single mom stereotype in this beguiling memoir of raising three sons alone in the face of cancer, an ambitious career, and the shadow of her ex.
Untethered from a seemingly idyllic life with a handsome but abusive attorney husband, Weldon relates the challenges and triumphs of the years that followed her divorce as she maneuvers through a complicated life of long daily commutes, radiation treatments, supporting the boys’ all-consuming high school wrestling careers, and trying to mitigate their hurt and resentment at an absent father.
By turns humorous and heartbreaking, Weldon describes facing her fears and failures honestly, guided by a belief in the power of staying calm, doing one’s best, and asking for help. She provides a graceful example of how a single mother, and her children, can succeed when others—neighbors, family, teachers, and in this case an incredible high school wrestling coach—step in to fill the void and she can stay the course with common sense and dutiful love.
About the Author
An award-winning journalist for more than two decades, Michele Weldon writes regularly for the Chicago Tribune and her work has appeared in hundreds of major newspapers and national magazines. Her first book, I Closed My Eyes, has been translated into French, Spanish, and Dutch. In 2000, Weldon earned the International Women's Peacepower Media Award for nonfiction as well as the Individual Courage Award from Rainbow House in Chicago.Her work has appeared in two anthologies, Joyce Carol Oates: Conversations with Joyce Carol Oates in 1989 and Belly Laughs and Babies in 1997. Weldon has appeared as a guest on TV shows on NBC, ABC, and BBC as well as on several local network and national cable stations. She has been a featured guest on more than ninety radio stations across the country and in Canada.She is a lecturer at her alma mater, the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University, where she has taught at the graduate and under-graduate levels since 1996. Weldon gives Writing to Save Your Life workshops in Chicago and around the country and is a frequent keynote speaker to local and national groups.Living in the Chicago area with her three sons, Weldon serves on the board of directors of Sarah's Inn, a domestic violence services agency in Oak Park, Illinois, and is a member of Children's Memorial Guild, a fund-raising arm of the medical center. She is a member of the Journalism and Women Symposium as well as the Association for Women Journalists.