Preview
  • Joy Enough

  • A Memoir
  • By: Sarah McColl
  • Narrated by: Sarah McColl
  • Length: 4 hrs and 40 mins
  • 4.3 out of 5 stars (21 ratings)

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Joy Enough

By: Sarah McColl
Narrated by: Sarah McColl
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Publisher's summary

From a bracing new voice comes this life-affirming memoir of a daughter making and remaking her life in her mother's image.

Sifting gingerly through memories of her late mother, brilliant newcomer Sarah McColl has penned an indelible tribute to the joy and pain of loving well. Even as her own marriage splinters, McColl drops everything when her mother is diagnosed with cancer, returning to the family farmhouse and laboring over elaborate meals in the hopes of nourishing her back to health. In a series of vibrant vignettes - lipstick applied, novels read, imperfect cakes baked - McColl reveals a woman of endless charm and infinite love for her unruly brood of children.

Mining the dual losses of both her young marriage and her beloved mother, McColl confronts her identity as a woman, walking lightly in the footsteps of the woman who came before her and clinging fast to the joy she left behind. With candor reminiscent of classics like C. S. Lewis's A Grief Observed, Joy Enough offers a story that blooms with life.

©2019 Sarah McColl (P)2018 Recorded Books
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Editor's Pick

A newcomer to watch
"Although I love a dishy memoir that spills every last juicy secret, there’s also something to be said for restraint. In the tradition of M.F.K. Fischer and Joan Didion, Joy Enough uses food as a fulcrum to explore the heart’s longing. As a twenty-something in New York whose young marriage was disintegrating, Sarah left her husband to go to her dying mother’s side and sought to cure her with lovingly cooked meals. This is a gorgeous, glittering jewel in the disguise of a memoir."
Rachel S., Audible Editor

What listeners say about Joy Enough

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A Compelling, Touching Memoir

I had to listen to this while washing dishes, folding laundry, in the calm moments between the chaos wreaked by young children. Didn’t want to stop listening, so lingered over the dirty dishes for longer than necessary, took longer to fold, ignored the screaming. McColl’s memoir was moving, poignant, lovely, funny, and compelling. I can only hope that my children one day appreciate me as much as McColl appreciate hers.

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Good story

Although I did like this book, I wasn't entirely sure where it was going. I love stories of everyday life, and this was a lot of that. Only I think I missed the point because the subjects were touched on so lightly.

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