Two Kisses for Maddy

Two Kisses for Maddy: A Memoir of Loss & Love by Matthew Logelin
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I know that memoir is the current “it” genre, and like most of you, I am getting tired of thirty-year-olds writing their life stories. Really your life has barely gotten going, so please save the trees and wait for a few more decades. Hilary Duff, can you hear me? Tina Fey, ignore this please. You’re at least in your forties, and you’re so funny that I don’t care how young you are.

Anyway, Two Kisses for Maddy is not the usual memoir. It is not a life story. It is just a love story that didn’t go the way Matt and Liz Logelin planned. You learn if you follow Matt’s blog (also called Two Kisses for Maddy) or from the book jacket that the book, written by Matt, is about loving and losing Liz and now raising their daughter Maddy alone. The book is heart-wrenching, hilarious, a bit profane, and wonderfully real. This is not a morality tale or a how-to on parenting or how to deal with grief. It is merely one man’s experience with falling in love, both with his wife and his new baby girl. He writes that way you would talk to a friend.

Like Jewels, I missed his slam poetry style that is so pervasive in his blog writing. He includes a little of that style at the beginning of every chapter, and it is raw, succinct, and powerful. This book is one that you can barely stand to put down. Liz and Matt’s love story is captivating and again, very real and accessible. But, this book does not give you warm fuzzies. It’s awful to read about Liz dying the day after Maddy was born without ever having the chance to hold her baby girl. And if you are sensitive to language, this is not the book for you as Matt never holds back. He likes the f-word as much as I like the word random. All that said, I really liked this book and am now one of the many people sending kisses to Maddy. After reading this, how could you not?