Over the past dozen years or so there has been a pronounced surge in the publication of memoirs. There's a memoir for every taste. The Rolling Stone Keith Richards published his memoir a few years back and it has been followed by the memoirs of just about any living music star you can name. A certain Scandinavian writer has been publishing a series of best selling memoirs that can dwell upon what might appear to be rather insignificant events.
Fortunately there are memoirs that are so impressive and well written that they rise to top of the memoir pool like the cream on a gallon of raw milk. Danielle Trussoni recently published "The Fortress - a Love Story." This book is the story of her marriage. Trussoni was married to a Bulgarian writer named Nikolai. This memoir reveals how they met when she was in college at Iowa City. The romantic flames burned fast and furious. In a very short time Trussoni had moved to Bulgaria with her new husband.
She became pregnant and the couple's daughter was born in Bulgaria. Trussoni was already having doubts and misgivings about her husband. Nikolai was subject to dark moods and jealousy. As the book opens the couple has just moved to a village in France with their two children. This relocation was one last flailing attempt to repair the expanding cracks and fault lines in their relationship. The marriage completely unraveled in their ancient house in France, "the fortress" of her title.
Trussoni documents the destruction of their marriage in prose that on the surface appears to be effortless and as smooth as a casual conversation. That's the beauty of her writing in this memoir, she makes it look easy but we know that it wasn't. The raw emotions that were unleashed are described with a brutal delicacy. This memoir sings. The song it sings is beautiful and rather sad. Danielle Trussoni has sifted through the smoldering ashes of her marriage and uncovered the glittering jewels of her memories.
The Book Nook on WYSO is made possible by six local library systems in southwest Ohio: the Greene County Public Library, Washington-Centerville Public Library, MidPointe Library System, Clark County Public Library, Dayton Metro Library, and Wright Memorial Public Library.
