The day before Robert died was an otherwise perfect June day in Connecticut: warm but not hot, with a bit of a breeze, flawless blue sky, puffy white clouds-the sort of weather a sailor loves, and Robert was a sailor.
So begins Tara Kelly’s moving memoir of her life with Robert Willis, her husband, father of their children, restauranteur, sailor, bon vivant, and alcoholic. From an enchanted start in Manhattan to a townhouse in Brooklyn, from an island in Maine and back to rural Connecticut, in fast cars, sleek boats, and on horseback, Tara and Robert seemed to live a charmed life. But beneath the glittering exterior was the struggle of money, alcohol, and ultimately self-control and hard-won sobriety. When this couple seems to have reached an impasse, separation brings renewed love, and then tragedy brings new challenges.
Tara Kelly’s memoir is a clear-eyed excavation of the lives lived together and apart by two charismatic modern Americans, a story told in love and compassion for herself and others, a story ’…never unsympathetic, and refreshingly free from sentimentality and the temptation to settle old scores’ (Michael Korda). A story readers will savor and remember.
Tentang Penulis
Tara Kelly has been a columnist and features writer for The Lakeville Journal, a volunteer EMT, a writer/producer in the Marketing Department of Lifetime Television, an ‘Under-Five’ extra on All My Children, a front of house manager/muse/substitute bottlewasher for two restaurants, and a reluctant first mate on the coast of Maine, all while raising two children and riding her horse as often as possible. She graduated from the Bennington College MFA Writing program in 2014. This is her first book.