IN THE FACE OF CATASTROPHE

This intimate, family-focused memoir follows a young woman’s ongoing recovery from a devastating stroke.

In 2021, a few days before her 31st birthday in Manhasset, New York, Goldman suffered a “massive bleed in the left frontal lobe” that left her in a coma for weeks and facing a long  recovery when she woke up. This short memoir, which lists Goldman and her mother, Hirshleifer, as co-authors, features sections told from their first-person perspectives as well as those of three others—Goldman’s father, David; her sister, Amanda; and her boyfriend, Mischa. The sections immediately following the stroke and the ensuing crisis offer personal insights from each narrator, and they offer validation of various different coping methods for people going through similar medical emergencies. However, there are only two sections from his perspective, as opposed to the several from each of the other narrators, which makes the book feel a bit structurally imbalanced. Goldman writes that after she woke up from her coma, she had to relearn how to speak, write, and accomplish other tasks, and she effectively tells of how a comprehensive team of medical professionals and therapists helped her recovery. Themes of perseverance and gratitude ring clearly throughout the book; indeed, Goldman states that one of her goals throughout her healing process was to spread a message of positivity, which provided the impetus for this memoir. However, although this is an admirable goal, the desire to fulfill it results in a somewhat truncated narrative; at well under 200 pages in length, the memoir is quite brief, even with the inclusion of medical reports throughout.

A short but uplifting remembrance that may appeal to families searching for inspiration during a medical crisis.