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Bettyville: A Memoir, by George Hodgman
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Review
Nautilus Book Awards Gold WinnerPraise for Bettyville“A remarkable, laugh-out-loud book . . . Rarely has the subject of elder care produced such droll human comedy, or a heroine quite on the mettlesome order of Betty Baker Hodgman. For as much as the book works on several levels (as a meditation on belonging, as a story of growing up gay and the psychic cost of silence, as metaphor for recovery), it is the strong-willed Betty who shines through.” —The New York Times“A lovely memoir . . .You won’t finish this tale dry-eyed.” —People, Book of the Week“A gorgeously constructed memoir . . . Hodgman creates an unforgettable portrait of his mother, Betty—a strong-willed nonagenarian struggling against the slow-motion breakdown of her mind and body. He evokes her with wit and tenderness.” —The New York Times Book Review“Without a doubt my favorite book of the year. Wise, witty, and heartbreaking . . . a surprisingly profound and hilarious look at aging, mothers and sons, fathers and sons, growing up gay and small-town life in America.” —Nathan Lane, “Who Read What: Books of the Year 2015,” The Wall Street Journal“A humorous, bittersweet account of Hodgman’s caring for his aging, irascible mother.” —Vanity Fair“Hodgman has written what will be seen, even years from now, as the quintessential book on taking care. . . . His desire to empathize, his focus on goodness, his search for hope allow him to find the beauty in the hour of now.” —Chicago Tribune“An intimate, heartfelt portrait of a mother and son, each at the crossroads of life . . . Hodgman’s sharp wit carries the book ever forward.” —Minneapolis Star-Tribune “A superb memoir . . . Hodgman is by turns wry, laugh-out-loud funny, self-deprecating, insecure to the point of near suicide, and an attentive caregiver despite occasional, understandable resentments. . . . I have read several hundred American memoirs; I would place Bettyville in the top five.” —Steve Weinberg, Kansas City Star “In his tender, sardonic, and fearless account of life with Betty—who has never acknowledged that her son is gay—Hodgman delivers an epic unfolding of his lifelong search for acceptance and love.” —The Atlanta Journal-Constitution“Hodgman paints a witty and poignant portrait of a son and his mother reconciling their differences and learning, among other things, how to cook, come to grips with caretaking, understand unspoken sexuality, and treat each other with patience, love, and self-respect. Surely we all have a beautifully complex and hilarious (if not semi-dysfunctional) relationships with our mothers, but none of us are likely to commemorate it with the skill and humor of Hodgman.” —Los Angeles Magazine“An exquisitely written memoir about the complicated but deeply genuine love a son feels for his courageous, headstrong, vulnerable mother in the twilight of her life. George Hodgman is stunningly clear-eyed and yet so darned big-hearted. Bettyville is just wonderful.” —Jeannette Walls, author of The Glass Castle “The idea of a cultured gay man leaving New York City to care for his aging mother in Paris, Missouri, is already funny, and George Hodgman reaps that humor with great charm. But then he plunges deep, examining the warm yet fraught relationship between mother and son with profound insight and understanding. This book looks outside, too, offering a moving lament for small-town America. Hodgman tenderly evokes the time before family farms and small businesses were replaced by meth labs and Walmarts. Yet he’s not sentimental about that lost world—he knew its cruelties firsthand. As George and his mother come to terms with one another at the end of her days, the book begins to shimmer with something much more rare than love: a boundless, transcendent, and simple kindness. Bettyville is a beautiful book about the strange plenitude that comes from finally letting go of everything.” —Alison Bechdel, author of Fun Home “Bettyville is a beautifully crafted memoir, rich with humor and wisdom. George Hodgman has created an unforgettable book about mothers and sons, and about the challenges that come with growing older and growing up.” —Will Schwalbe, author of The End of Your Life Book Club“This is a superior memoir, written in a witty and episodic style, yet at times it’s heartbreaking . . . filled with a lifetime’s worth of reflection and story after fascinating story.” —Library Journal (starred review)“Hodgman writes with wit and empathy about all the loss he’s confronted with. Betty’s poor health is mirrored by the failure of towns like Paris, whose farms and lumberyards are now Walmarts and meth labs. Coming out in the age of AIDS, he lost the people he was close to when he had nowhere else to turn. . . . That doesn’t mean Bettyville is without humor—far from it. Paris eccentrics (one woman shampoos her hair in the soda fountain) compete with Hodgman’s colleagues in the office of Vanity Fair. . . . This is a portrait of a woman in decline, but still very much alive and committed to getting the lion’s share of mini-Snickers at every opportunity. When things are left unsaid between parents and children, it leaves a hurt that can never be completely repaired, but love and dedication can make those scarred places into works of art. Bettyville is one such masterpiece.” —BookPage“The book is instantly engaging, as Hodgman has a wry sense of humor, one he uses to keep others at a distance. Yet the book is also devastatingly touching. Betty is one tough cookie, and she is crumbling. Hodgman as a young man came out around the same time AIDS did, complicating his already complicated feelings immeasurably. There’s a lot for Hodgman to handle, yet he does, despite the urge to give in to his own sadness and his own former drug addiction. A tender, resolute look at a place, literal and figurative, baby boomers might find themselves.” —Booklist “Bettyville is a gorgeous memoir. I was completely engaged, not just because of George Hodgman’s great ear and his sense of timing, but because he delivers Betty to us in such a manner that she steps off the page . I felt transported to a better place, to a time period and a web of relationships with which we can all identify, no matter where we grew up. Beyond the humor and the pathos, the quotidian and the bizarre, there remain profound lessons about life and love that I will carry away.” —Abraham Verghese, author of Cutting for Stone “George Hodgman achieves something stunning with this book—by paying such deep, loving attention to his mother’s (admittedly colorful) life, he offers us the chance to pay close attention to our own strange and beautiful Bettyvilles, which in the end is all we can ask of any art. This bejeweled pillbox is rich and funny and heartwrenching and might just you cure you of your ills; if those ills include loneliness or feeling like you don’t belong—you are not alone.” —Nick Flynn, author of Another Bullshit Night in Suck City “One of the great benefits of reading memoir is that it offers the reader more people to love. I love Betty, and I love George Hodgman, whose beautiful book this is. Read Bettyville. Laugh, weep, and be grateful.” —Abigail Thomas, author of A Three Dog Life “Bettyville reminded me of some Homeric legend, complete with treacherous chimeras and ravenous gorgons, except that it is told with such grace, wit, and spirited generosity that you hardly sense you are on a fragile bark, adrift on a perilous sea. This story of a sensitive Midwestern boy coming to terms with his homosexuality, his drug addiction, his clueless parents, his all-out war with shame, is nothing short of epic. It begins as a simple trip home from fast-track Manhattan to Paris, Missouri, to care for a failing mother, but by the time we are through, we have descended to an underworld, witnessed a plague, traveled all nine circles of hell, and emerged exhilarated by the grit and valor of our remarkable guide. It is, in every sense, a tale about the power of love.” —Marie Arana, author of American Chica “With great tenderness, honesty, and a searing, sardonic humor, George Hodgman has written a love letter to his mother, at once a penance and a tribute. In doing so, he has given us Betty, a character for the ages. This is a beautiful, illuminating book.” —Dani Shapiro, author of Devotion “When I read the first few pages of Bettyville, I immediately connected. The detail is poetry and, yes, George Hodgman tells a story that is all our stories if we grow up different, struggling not to hurt those we treasure. But what I will most remember is the human struggle of Betty—the woman at the window, the woman at the piano, the woman whose desire to help others represents the best of small-town America. The silence she was taught and the complications of our parents’ journeys to be there for us, as best they could, is what I will take away from Bettyville, where she will always reside. Hers is the quiet love that outlasts the distances and lets us survive.” —Richard Blanco, United States inaugural poet, author of The Prince of los Cucuyos: A Miami Childhood
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About the Author
George Hodgman is a veteran magazine and book editor who has worked at Simon & Schuster, Vanity Fair, and Talk magazine. His writing has appeared in Entertainment Weekly, Interview, W, and Harper’s Bazaar, among other publications. He lives in New York City and Paris, Missouri.
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Product details
Paperback: 288 pages
Publisher: Penguin Books; Reprint edition (February 2, 2016)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0143107887
ISBN-13: 978-0143107880
Product Dimensions:
5.3 x 0.7 x 8 inches
Shipping Weight: 12.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
Average Customer Review:
4.3 out of 5 stars
888 customer reviews
Amazon Best Sellers Rank:
#191,594 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
Bettyville is the author's memoir of returning to small-town Missouri to care for his ailing mother. Woven into the story of his mother's sickness and decline are Hodgman's memories of growing up in a middle-America, small-town, sometimes close-minded community. Like most of us Hodgman has mixed feelings about his hometown. Paris, Missouri certainly provided its share of problems for Hodgman (many centered around his sexuality), but it also provided positive ones, ones for which he feels nostalgia. Many of those same traits are reflected in Hodgman's mother, and family and community distinctly intertwine and Hodgman reminisces.Overall this is a well-thought and presented memoir, dealing with experiences (nostalgia, aging parents, going home again) that affect many of us. It is well worth reading.
I'm a hard sell. When someone tells me a book is funny, I invariably wind up wondering why s/he found it funny -- because I definitely did not. I tend to ignore most reviews of books (or movies), preferring to decide for myself on the merits, or lack of them in a given piece of work. That said, I chose to review Bettyville because I was actually intrigued by the cover--the very reason we've always been told not to judge a book. But the photograph had an authentic feel to it that rang a small bell for me. So I got the book. And I truly loved it. I loved George Hodgman and his mother; his father, too.Hodgman's great gift is to present the connective tissue between reader and writer, the thoughts and feelings and events that knit us together in a manner achieved only by the most profoundly truthful and deeply felt telling of lives lived. In spite of our obvious differences (male/female, straight/gay, etc) Hodgman's feelings mirror my own in too many ways to enumerate. He made me laugh repeatedly; he moved me often. I felt his irritation, his anger with himself, and his good-hearted impulses toward others. I knew him because he reveals himself so completely, so courageously, so hilariously. For example: "Just a typical American family, torn between love and homicide, but united in our own way." One just has to laugh at something so absolutely true.This book deserves recognition and accolades. Read it and feel your heart open and then constrict, then open again. The parent in me wants to adopt the little boy in George. The child in me wants to be friends with that lonely boy whose isolation feels remembered to me. And the sister in me wants to help George prepare some treats for Betty, and then persuade her to put on her comfy old wrecked sandals so that we can all go out for a nice, easy walk.
It looks like you'll be enthused or underwhelmed, and I'm with the 1/3 of the reviewers who are underwhelmed. In fact, after hearing so many good things, I was disappointed. Certainly it jumps around from theme to theme, but that didn't bother me as it does some other reviewers. It simply wasn't compelling; the treatment of being gay in the 1980s, dealing with the dementia of a parent, coming home to a declining middle America -- all good topics, but none treated with the incisiveness and specialness I expected in a book so highly regarded by so many. On the plus side, the author is very clever and very witty; many lines are very special, and I laughed out loud a number of times, which I'm not induced to do easily. For a native Missourian (I'm a Missourian but not a native), the descriptions (albeit with some liberties) of real places and times will be special to you (so my fellow book clubbers tell me). So, go ahead and read it -- it's a quick read, and the humor is worth it. Just don't expect so much, and if you start with that mindset, you might feel like its a 4-star or 5-star read.
"Bettyville reminded me of some Homeric legend, complete with treacherous chimeras and ravenous gorgons, except that it is told with such grace, wit, and spirited generosity that you hardly sense you are on a fragile bark, adrift on a perilous sea."Wow! Writers kill for reviews like this. George Hodgman has my admiration for completing and publishing "Bettyville," and I feel bad because I wasn't as moved by it as others were, both here and in the media. I liked reading about George and Betty and sure it might have rambled a bit here and there, but I thought it was good. A little long, but good. I wondered why there was no real resolution to the tension that builds as we all worry about "What's gonna happen to Betty?" George doesn't take us there. I suppose that's not necessarily a bad thing.I think George has tapped into a new vein of literature -- Baby Boomers coming home to take care of Mom and Dad in their last years. I've been through it, along with millions of others, and there is a comfort in knowing others are coping with the same issues and events.I guess I felt like there was an overarching sadness about George not being able to be who he truly is with his folks. I understand why. He didn't want to disappoint them. But still . . .George didn't have "the talk" with Betty. But he did get her to say "You could do worse" about the doctor. And that's something right there.
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