BRAVE(ISH)

Chicago writer Ghielmetti gradually gains confidence and self-realization in this globe-trotting memoir.

After leaving the comfort of the Windy City in 2000, the author accompanied her hotelier husband, Patrick, across the globe as they traveled overseas to facilitate his work. In the book’s opening, Ghielmetti makes clear that she adhered to the Davis Family Handbook—her term for a series of precepts that urged family members to repeat “How lucky am I?” in the face of adversity and to always put others first. She also aimed to be the perfect partner to her husband, so she followed Patrick around the globe to Paris, Cairo, and Bangkok. The pair then traveled to Sharm el Sheikh, where she gave up drinking alcohol, worked as an editor for Patrick’s concierge team, and helped him open a resort. She thought of herself as essential to his hotelier work but eventually realized that “maybe the world might not stop spinning” if she sought her own selfhood. She began pursuing her writing and also started to make more choices—and friends—of her own, finding that, despite what the handbook might say, it’s OK to let off steam “to other humans who understand.” Late in the memoir, she tells of her mother entering hospice care; Ghielmetti went back to Chicago to be with her. Patrick later returned home and became a vice president for the Four Seasons. Over the course of this book, Ghielmetti works in plainspoken language that shows her sense of fun, and her close attention to imagery creates a memorable world, as when she tells of recognizing a banquet’s spiritual significance: “apples and Chinese pears to bring financial luck…golden-tinted desserts for prosperity.” Her prose is also often informal, but enjoyably so. Near the book’s conclusion, for instance, Ghielmetti tells of how she was finally ready to slow down and live on her own terms; she joins a storytelling group and at last releases her self-doubt: “My stories have meaning for others,” she notes, “and for me.” When she and Patrick finally returned to Paris in 2019, her confidence had grown; she was no longer just an avid reader of literature, she noted proudly—she could create it.

An uplifting affirmation of a rediscovered self.