The Elder Statesman

The Geography of Love
A Memoir
By GLENDA BURGESS
Broadway Books
A division of Random House
Hardcover $22.95 

By BILL DUNCAN
The News-Review

To write a memoir is a heroic act in itself. To write a memoir as personal as “The Geography of Love,” is a pure gift to readers. Glenda Burgess’ memoir is a very personal love story that warns

the reader that “…falling in love is the greatest leap of faith any of us can take. There is no guarantee for future happiness, no protection from the ugly scars of the past, no shield from tragedy.”

In an open letter to the reader she declares “truthfully I didn’t write with any intention of publishing my story, but rather as a way of examining my life and coping with the enormity of a life changing upheaval. One of the most basic instincts we humans have is to process and give meaning to all our experiences, both good and bad, and seek to be more enriched for it.” She said her goal “is that the reader will find hope, magic and inspiration in my story.”

Glenda Burgess, a polished writer of two previously published novels, lives in Spokane, Wash. She met Kenneth Grunzweig in 1988, after realizing at age 30 her exciting, world-traveling job with the State Department wasn’t fulfilling her dreams and she returned home to a rural life in Spokane, where she took a job as a tech writer. Her boss was Kenneth Grunzweig.

Kenneth had already lost his first wife in a tragic car crash and then years later, his second wife, when she was brutally murdered in her home while their young daughter slept in the next room. Kenneth was 13 years her senior. She learned on one of their early dates, he was

still a primary suspect in the death of his second wife – a shadowy suspicion that would follow him for decades.

She took that “leap of faith” when she married Kenneth, a man who had loved and lost twice before, therefore it was also a “leap of faith” for him. With all these negative forces at work, Glenda writes about both finding a deep and trusting love that comes to a tragic end when Ken is diagnosed with terminal cancer after 13 years of married happiness. If Glenda had written this as fiction it could not have been more of a dramatic story answering the age-old question of  “is it better to have loved and lost than to not have loved at all.”

She was a stay-at-home mom who became a writer while caring for their two children and an emotionally scarred Jordan, the daughter Ken had with is murdered wife. It is a poignant exploration of the depths of the human heart and the ability to love and trust regardless of the odds, almost a love letter written to her husband who died a slow and painful death in 2003.

The readers will walk through the life of Glenda Burgess who left hr exciting job to returned home and discover, as she writes, “our beginnings and our endings intersect in such particular, intimate geography.” She explains that line as “my husband lies buried here in the latitudes where we first met … and twenty miles away, in the rural farm country of her mother’s people, my mother lies at rest.”

The writing style is so strong that the reader almost becomes part of the story. The conclusion is especially touching and in my opinion is the real depth of the love story. I read the book in two sessions simply because it was so engrossing. She keeps a reminder of that love in a crumpled and worn note, scrawled across a child’s sketch of a fat sun:

“G, Thanks for all your love and caretaking of this old body. Love you, Ken”

And with that, she concludes the book.

To her, “life distills in the elements of chaos and chance,” and she concludes with “the past is the only place my heart doesn’t hurt.” The reader may think this is a morbid story, but it is not. It is a lesson in courage from a woman who believes in goodness in the face of calamity and remains optimistic during life’s most difficult trials. She sees every part of life as an adventure and an opportunity giving the reader lessons in courage and hope and revealing the depths of love.

Writing is nothing new to Glenda, but she confesses that she is surprised at the reaction of readers to this personal memoir. Previously she had written two novels, “Exposures,” and “Loose Threads,” that had moderate success. In typical upbeat fashion, Glenda was not discouraged and today is even more excited about writing.

She said in an interview that reading life stories helps writers. She is currently shaping up a final manuscript of a novel she explains will be a love story spread over three generations and notes that it is “nice to be back in the world of make-believe.”

(Bill Duncan is the editor of The Senior Times. He also writes a weekly column in The News-Review. He can be reached at bduncan@nrtoday.com. He and his wife, Ada, also a writer, will preside over a workshop on writing memoirs at the Sept. 5^th at the Extraordinary Living conference at Umpqua Community College.)

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