Overview

"Culled from sixty blog posts spanning eight years, Tangles and Plaques is a candid account of a mother and daughter's changing relationship as they face the progressive landscape of Alzheimer's Disease together. As the twisted fibers (tangles) build up inside the nerve cells in her brain and the protein fragments (plaques) fill the spaces between those cells, Effie Johnson--like millions of others who suffer from Alzheimer's--loses her memory, the stories that make up the fabric of her life. Blending humor (""I Can't Find My Panties"") with pathos (""Disappearing Stories"") and hope with despair, Susan Johnson Cushman captures the personal within the universal in a story that reveals a complicated relationship between an often verbally abusive mother and a daughter hungry for her mother's unconditional love. Part Polaroid, part cautionary tale, the reality woven throughout these records of long-distance caregiving is that the tangles and plaques aren't only in our brains, but often in our relationships. ""Susan Cushman is not only an accomplished writer, but she tackles a brutal topic with candor and honesty. Madness awaits us all. I pray I can confront it with equal faith and vulnerability."" Neil White, author of In the Sanctuary of Outcasts ""Cushman has written a new kind of love story, one that speaks to the very real concerns of a generation. In this true story of a daughter's love for her aging mother within the daily trials of caregiving, we read ourselves, our families, and the ways that our losses shape who we become and how we choose to remember."" Jessica Handler, author of Invisible Sisters: A Memoir and Braving the Fire: A Guide to Writing About Grief and Loss"

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9781632133403

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Reviews

"""Susan Cushman is not only an accomplished writer, but she tackles a brutal topic with candor and honesty. Madness awaits us all. I pray I can confront it with equal faith and vulnerability."" -Neil White, author of In the Sanctuary of Outcasts ""Cushman has written a new kind of love story, one that speaks to the very real concerns of a generation. In this true story of a daughter's love for her aging mother within the daily trials of caregiving, we read ourselves, our families, and the ways that our losses shape who we become and how we choose to remember."" -Jessica Handler, author of Invisible Sisters: A Memoir and Braving the Fire: A Guide to Writing About Grief and Loss ""Susan Cushman writes with clarity and grace about the gnarled pathways between her and her mother, and about the terrible disease that holds a surprising grace within its irrevocable sadness. Tangles and Plaques has the courage to see it all. This is a memoir about caretaking and taking care. It's a book that will touch your heart."" -Lee Martin, author of From Our House and Such a Life ""An honest, open account of the personal challenges, wrenching heart aches, spiritual questions, and practical concerns one faces in caring at a distance for a loved one with Alzheimer's. Cushman provides intimate, detailed descriptions of her constant doubts, emotional upheavals, hard decisions, and frustrating encounters with professional caregivers during the decade of the unrelenting progression of her mother's mental and physical deterioration."" - Sally Palmer Thomason, author of The Living Spirit of the Crone: Turning Aging Inside Out, The Topaz Brooch, and Delta Rainbow-the Irrepressible Betty Bobo Pearson. ""Susan Cushman writes a profoundly personal and honest portrait of her eight-year journey with her mother suffering from Alzheimer's. She brings her talent for story, scene, and character to bear in the unfolding of real-time moments that show disease progression and the ensuing softening in a challenged relationship. Cushman sees and feels things deeply and finds in each encounter a nugget of wisdom that fortifies her with focus, peace, and faith. Her stories give inspiration and insight to others who face this journey."" - Kathy Rhodes, author of Remember the Dragonflies: A Memoir of Grief and Healing ""Tangles and Plaques is a beautiful and moving memoir and one that chronicles the journey of Alzheimer's. Through the tangles and plaques associated with the disease, however, Cushman finds a way to heal and set her sight on the good. Readers, too, get a lesson in how to live better."" -Niles Reddick, Vice Provost, The University of Memphis-Lambuth, and author of Drifting Too Far from the Shore."

Susan Cushman is not only an accomplished writer, but she tackles a brutal topic with candor and honesty. Madness awaits us all. I pray I can confront it with equal faith and vulnerability. -Neil White, author of In the Sanctuary of Outcasts Cushman has written a new kind of love story, one that speaks to the very real concerns of a generation. In this true story of a daughter's love for her aging mother within the daily trials of caregiving, we read ourselves, our families, and the ways that our losses shape who we become and how we choose to remember. -Jessica Handler, author of Invisible Sisters: A Memoir and Braving the Fire: A Guide to Writing About Grief and Loss Susan Cushman writes with clarity and grace about the gnarled pathways between her and her mother, and about the terrible disease that holds a surprising grace within its irrevocable sadness. Tangles and Plaques has the courage to see it all. This is a memoir about caretaking and taking care. It's a book that will touch your heart. -Lee Martin, author of From Our House and Such a Life An honest, open account of the personal challenges, wrenching heart aches, spiritual questions, and practical concerns one faces in caring at a distance for a loved one with Alzheimer's. Cushman provides intimate, detailed descriptions of her constant doubts, emotional upheavals, hard decisions, and frustrating encounters with professional caregivers during the decade of the unrelenting progression of her mother's mental and physical deterioration. - Sally Palmer Thomason, author of The Living Spirit of the Crone: Turning Aging Inside Out, The Topaz Brooch, and Delta Rainbow-the Irrepressible Betty Bobo Pearson. Susan Cushman writes a profoundly personal and honest portrait of her eight-year journey with her mother suffering from Alzheimer's. She brings her talent for story, scene, and character to bear in the unfolding of real-time moments that show disease progression and the ensuing softening in a challenged relationship. Cushman sees and feels things deeply and finds in each encounter a nugget of wisdom that fortifies her with focus, peace, and faith. Her stories give inspiration and insight to others who face this journey. - Kathy Rhodes, author of Remember the Dragonflies: A Memoir of Grief and Healing Tangles and Plaques is a beautiful and moving memoir and one that chronicles the journey of Alzheimer's. Through the tangles and plaques associated with the disease, however, Cushman finds a way to heal and set her sight on the good. Readers, too, get a lesson in how to live better. -Niles Reddick, Vice Provost, The University of Memphis-Lambuth, and author of Drifting Too Far from the Shore.

Author Information

Susan Cushman is editor of a collection of essays by twenty women, A Second Blooming: Becoming the Women We Are Meant to Be (Mercer University Press, 2017) and was a contributor to three anthologies: Circling Faith: Southern Women on Spirituality (University of Alabama Press, 2012), The Shoe Burnin': Stories of Southern Soul (Rivers Edge Media, 2013), and Dumped: Stories of Women Unfriending Women (She Writes Press, February, 2015).

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