| She
charmed America with her smart,
likable, down-to-earth personality
as she campaigned for her husband,
then vice-presidential candidate
John Edwards. She inspired
millions as she valiantly fought
advanced breast cancer after
being diagnosed only days before
the 2004 election. She touched
hundreds of similarly grieving
families when her own son,
Wade, died tragically at age
sixteen in 1996. Now she shares
her experiences in Saving Graces,
an incandescent memoir of Edwards’ trials,
tragedies, and triumphs, and
of how various communities
celebrated her joys and lent
her steady strength and quiet
hope in darker times.
Edwards writes about growing
up in a military family,
where she learned how to
make friends easily in dozens
of new schools and neighborhoods
around the world and came
to appreciate the unstinting
help and comfort naval families
shared. Edwards’ reminiscences
of her years as a mother
focus on the support she
and other parents offered
one another, from everyday
favors to the ultimate test
of her own community’s
strength—their compassionate
response to the death of
the Edwards’ teenage
son, Wade, in 1996. Her descriptions
of her husband’s campaigns
for Senate, president, and
vice president offer a fascinating
perspective on the groups,
great and small, that sustain
our democracy. Her fight
with breast cancer, which
stirred an outpouring of
support from women across
the country, has once again
affirmed Edwards’ belief
in the power of community
to make our lives better
and richer.
|
