Marrow Memory: Essays of Discovery

by Margaret Nowaczyk

In Marrow Memory: Essays of Discovery Margaret Nowaczyk explores different facets of her life, from listening to the radio dramas of her childhood in Communist Poland to her work now as a pediatric clinical geneticist. These are beautifully crafted essays, full of hard-won truths and insights, generously shared with the reader. Whether struggling with English as a teenaged refugee or documenting the process of permanent hair dye, Nowaczyk moves seamlessly between scientific and personal writing, bridging the gap between these two areas with elegance and humour. Marrow Memory is an invitation to the reader to marvel in the unexpected beauties of human experience and the ability of language to capture that.

Genres: Nonfiction, Memoir, Essays

186 pages, Paperback

Published June 18, 2024

Reviews

[Jack M · Rating 4 out of 5]

It’s a real injustice that someone like Rachel Cusk can write a collection of essays centered around something as meaningless as an elite overcoming the terrible hardship of something as trifle as a divorce, and readers will eat it up to no end. Meanwhile, here is a woman who has gone through so much on a personal level, contributed to mankind’s knowledge by becoming an expert in her scientific field, and manages to write - write so well that if she was ‘only’ writing, I’d view her as a resounding success.

Sure, I have some bias since I share the same heritage, and my enthusiasm fizzled out ever so slightly a little towards the end, but this is a really strong collection. By mixing her scientific knowledge with her personal stories of Poland and Canada, the reader is rewarded with understanding and emotion. I think the best essays do that. I’m quite smitten, if not ashamed of my inferiority as someone who identifies as a Polish Canadian.

[Anna Tee · Rating 5 out of 5]

As a first generation Polish person, I smiled through many parts as I could picture many family members sharing similar sentiments to Nowaczyk. E.g: Canadians don't know tree types! Lol. Moreover, as a native to Hamilton, I sense I am two degrees away from Nowaczyk. Though, her achievements are something; and I couldn't help but consider the distaste of my few in the mouths of my parents. Though, this book is not about that; though, it surely will stir ideas of identity, belonging, migration and ambition in all readers. I think it's Nowaczyk's meditations on her own life. I especially liked her ability to connect her memories and sentiments with her medical knowledge into a thought provoking work.

[Irene Mckay · Rating 4 out of 5]

“If you pluck a grey hair, ten others will grow in its place” (Polish folk wisdom)

Somewhat true, because I’ve seen it, can grow like weeds, funny 😁

Well essays, a popular kind of writing, it may be academic or personal. This particular essay describes a life journey from childhood to adulthood. Memories shapes your understanding of self and appreciation to human experience.

A great story that you can read and maybe relate in some way which in turn learned from it.

Thank you for the ARC.

[Sara Hailstone · Rating 5 out of 5]

https://www.sarahailstone.com/book-re...

[Justine · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book. I have never read any book of short essays before and I enjoyed that format.
So I feel like I fit into the stereotype that our author initially was talking about in the essay You, In Translation. When I filmed my unboxing I pronounced her name wrong and then what’s the very first essay about? How our author literally changed her name because people never pronounced it correctly. I’m even more sorry about it now.
I really enjoyed reading al of these snippets of Margaret’s life and seeing how it affected her life and sometimes we got to see the same incidents but from different stories but they overlap. My favourite essay was Ad Infinitim, it really hit home because I also work in healthcare and we always have those stories and the what if’s to match them. The whole book really kept me interested and I really feel a kinship to the author. I will read whatever else she writes. I just loved hearing her story and I feel like she has so much for us.
I don’t think this necessarily is a book for everyone but if it amounts like you type of book you will love it and I want those people to all grab it.

Thank you so much to Wolsak & Wynn and River Street Writes and of course Margaret Nowaczyk for allowing me the chance to read this masterpiece.

[Jane Mulkewich · Rating 5 out of 5]

Published by Hamilton publisher Wolsak and Wynn, I had read the first book by this Hamilton author Margaret Nowaczyk and was quick to read this second one. Her first book was more focused on her career as a pediatric clinical geneticist and in narrative medicine, and on her mental health journey. This second book only touches briefly on narrative medicine and on her day-job (and does not mention anything at all about mental health); it consists of short essays on a wide range of topics from learning how to use potato starch to wash her sheets as had been done in her childhood in Poland, to her love of the linden tree, to her use of hair dye for the grey in her hair, and the science of what is happening to those hair follicles. My favourite essay was the one called Tato, written to and about her father. Her chapter about her mother bravely reveals a much more complex and hurtful relationship. I feel she is also brave in how she describes a trip in which she yearns to re-ignite an adolescent flame on a trip to Poland, all the while with her husband and kids waiting for her here in Hamilton. As someone who has become fluent in two languages and a scientist, she pays close attention to words, and her words make for great reading on a wide arc of topics.

[Jen Jones · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really enjoying this collection so far.