You Could Make This Place Beautiful: A Memoir Hardcover – April 11, 2023

Maggie Smith is the poet who wrote “Good Bones,” a poem that went viral a few years ago when it was used in a episode of the (excellent) Netflix series, “Madam Secretary,” and then was read aloud by Meryl Streep at a poetry awards ceremony shortly afterwards. It’s a beautiful, thoughtful poem. (It’s included in this book, so you don’t have to look it up online.) Her writings (and those of Mary Oliver, for that matter) have recently jumpstarted my first-ever post-high-school exploration of poetry. It’s never too late to discover great writing.So I decided to read “You Could Make This Place Beautiful.” Smith’s memoir is magical and heart-rending and open (but definitely not a tell-all) as she describes her journey into and through her divorce from her attorney husband. I was driven to read this book in 2 days. So many of her observations and insights took my breath away, especially those that apply to losing any loved one. Her prose is just as glorious as her poetry.PS She deliberately doesn’t name her ex in the book. And the book isn’t a diatribe against him. It’s about her journey and that of her two kids. She’s circumspect about what she includes. A class act.

I struggled a bit with this book because at times I was thinking this subject doesn’t apply to me, I don’t have a troubled marriage I’m not thinking about divorce, however, the uniqueness of the writing, the short snippets, the quotes the feelings, the stories were so authentic, so real, so raw that I couldn’t put the book down. I wanted to know that she was going to be OK. I also wanted to feel what she was feeling and understand the process of getting through it. Maggie found life through her loss. She found that, even though there was a large shadow, the darkened her world for a time, that lives little moments chipped away at the darkness! Thank you for sharing.

This book is poignant and… what can I say? I ugly cried reading it on the plane.

Lovely writing. Easy to read a bit, put down and come back to. Gone through a divorce, thinking about divorce, maybe even happily married - you’ll enjoy this if you like literary writing.

This book is about much more than divorce. In this book I found a story about identity and claiming your life's work as your right. Maggie does a brilliant job of making her ex-husband and The Addressee present without saying much about them at all. She is a master poet and brings a toned attention to detail to tell this story. A story with so much pain reads like a love story. A love for her work, her children, family and community. Inspiring, elegant, brave, thank you Maggie Smith.

Very beautifully written, but it goes on and on. At one point I felt we were coming to a natural conclusion; I checked and I was only at 25% done. Much of this seemed like it could've stayed a journal entry. And apparently she already wrote a book about her divorce before this one??? How? Is it all the same material? And yet she repeatedly says she's not telling us everything, because it's a memoir not a tell-all, she's got to have some secrets or something. I can't imagine what she could be holding back, since everything is retold painstakingly. Maybe it's whatever happened that didn't make her ex look like a heartless villain, and her the saintly martyr mother?And everything is so precious. Every book, plate, street, etc. It must be exhausting to attach so much sentimentality to every little thing that makes up a normal life. Not everything has to be forever and ever. People move house and still get on with life. You'd survive moving to a different street. Your kids will turn out fine even if they don't live forever in the bedroom you painted yellow together before they were born. In fact, moving somewhere that doesn't have memories attached to every single thing would probably be helpful for letting go and moving on. It's giving Miss Havisham.The cento at the end was very cool, I admit. I don't care for poetry (adding random line breaks doesn't make something a poem!!) but the cento was a clever way to bring it all full circle and summarize the whole book. Helps that the cento was just written like prose, with no attempt at pretentious line breaks.TL;DR There were lots of heartbreakingly articulate, eloquent parts. Just too much, and very repetitive.

as someone who rarely reads,I really enjoyed this.

Written by poet, Maggie Smith, each word in this memoir was a gift. In You Could Make This Place Beautiful, Maggie shares the story of her journey from married mom of two to divorced, single mom. It is rich with struggle, honesty, and hard truths. For anyone beginning again and looking for a little hope along the way.

Oh, Maggie Smith writes to eloquently about the messiness of human experiences. She beautifully shows how our understanding of life events change as we process them. I wholeheartedly recommend this book to anyone!

I know we are only in January but this is far and away my favourite read so far. A magnificent attempt at piecing together a life and a family after the devastation of divorce. Thoughtful, clever, funny and sad and at times fiercely angry - I nodded so much as I was reading this I gave myself a sore neck. This is wonderful. I read it in a day and have thought about it, talked about it and re-read sections since then.

Would def recommend… stunningly beautiful writing … poetic and funny in many places despite the grief and pain she writes about

A very honest and raw novel, and honest in a way people so rarely are these days. It was moving and comforting and equally heartbreaking.

I loved this book and couldn’t put it down - I literally read it in one day. Maggie Smith is an INCREDIBLE writer. Just amazing.