59. You Could Make This Place Beautiful | Maggie Smith
A memoir
Friends,
My journey to this book started when I came across Maggie Smith’s viral poem, Good Bones1. There’s a line in the poem that I love and I only learnt whilst living in London, renovating old Victorian houses:
Any decent realtor,
walking you through a real shithole, chirps on
about good bones: This place could be beautiful,
right? You could make this place beautiful.
The first time an estate agent mentioned ‘good bones’ at a viewing, I admit, my first thought was ‘oh crap, there’s skeletons in these old Victorian walls’. 😬 Thankfully he was talking about the beautiful bay windows and the high ceilings. In all of my renovation projects I’ve had to do just that - block out the exposed electrical wires, the rotten window frames, the grotty carpets and focus on the feeling in my gut that I could make this a beautiful home.
Maggie’s book is not about renovations, but it does feature a special family home that I imagine had great bones. This is her story of the disintegration of her marriage and her journey through the divorce as she transitioned through all the stages of that. How she (full circle 👏🏼) used the money from this book to buy her husband out of his share of the house after he left. I cried in the parts where she describes how she kept a brave face despite her heartbreak and I seethed with anger when reading about her husband’s betrayal. I too have had an ex-partner jealous of my success. It reminded me of his snide, underhand comments and the petulant behaviour he would resort to whenever I shared my own good news. A good reminder that it takes very little to trigger an already insecure man.
This book brought back so many memories for me (previous said toxic boyfriend; my own parents unhappy marriage; working all day in my job with insecure men) but it wasn’t all triggers. It’s an inspirational story too. Maggie is so generous in her sharing that I found myself mentally cheering her on as she navigates the custodial legal dramas, transitions to a single parent family and finds her own inner strengths. There’s a great paragraph towards the end where, upon reflection, she realises her life has been beautiful all along. Talk about full circle.
Recent reads & other media
A great roundup of reads by KIOSK, see both 2023 and 2022. I’ve added both Michel the Giant: An African in Greenland by Tété-Michel Kpomassie and Feral by George Monbiot to my TBR 2024 pile.
A beautiful love story and a gift.
Friendship > Romance. What if friendship, not marriage, was at the centre of life?
Thank you for sharing your insights and recommendations.