I listened to this audiobook from Lincoln City Libraries through my Libby App. Narrated by the author, it’s a short 4 hours, the perfect listen for a road trip. I looked up Bess Kalb’s book after reading the following statement “Last year at a party a writer I respect called my pregnant stomach a ‘career-ender’ and now I’m the head writer of a show I sold to a major network and yesterday I signed the deal paying me to write a movie based on the book I finished 5 weeks postpartum, so do you like apples?” and I thought… yes, this is a woman whose book I’d like to read.
Some relationships are meant to be memorialized, the voices of our loved ones with us even after they’re gone. Such is the memoir of Bess Kalb and her maternal grandmother “Grandma Bobby.” Kalb recounts three generations of family history, mostly focused on the women, in a succinct and heartwarming account. The author doesn’t gloss over the true-to-life relationships of her family but displays them in all their messy glory. The result is a series of recounted conversations, family tales, and verbatim voicemail messages left by her grandmother. Kalb saved every one her Grandma Bobby ever left her. I admit, I laughed and cried as these people, flaws and all, came to life. Relationships and family especially can be messy, filled with misunderstanding, pride, and rough edges that rub, but through all of this, the spunky voice of Grandma Bobby is clear, that and her love for her granddaughter.
Kalb, Bess. Nobody Will Tell You This But Me: A true (as told to me) story. Penguin Random House Audio. 2020.
