While this review won’t be very long, I hope you don’t think that its length reflects its worth. You Could Make This Place Beautiful is gorgeous in its writing and heartbreaking in its prose. It’s follows Maggie Smith as she tells her story about her divorce and how she recovers afterwards. I found it to be very relatable even though I’ve never gotten a divorce because I can imagine exactly how she felt with her descriptions. I can also imagine how it would feel to be alone after thinking that you’d never be alone again. 

I normally go through writing, characters and plot, but since this novel is a memoir, it’s rated mostly on content and the feelings that it drew from me. This novel has no formal plot expect the random timeline jumps, so it felt very… precarious in terms of knowing where the story was going. This is how Maggie Smith meant it to be, I think, and honestly didn’t hurt my enjoyment at all. 

The writing style is absolutely beautiful. Earlier, I called it lyrical and I meant that. Maggie Smith is primarily a poet, and you can see it in the way she writes and narrates her own life. Her writing style was probably my favorite part of the whole book. 

As for characters, since this isn’t a fiction novel, I’m not going to comment on them because this memoir is about actual people. Although, I will say that Smith’s son, Rhett, was absolutely adorable and so smart. He seems like an awesome little kid along with his sister Violet. 

Overall, this memoir is a story about moving on, learning how to be alone, and growing back into oneself after having be ripped from the other half that you always thought would be yours. Even though I’ve never been divorced, Maggie Smith’s writing has given me a window to see just how much it truly hurts and it was beautiful to see how she picked herself back up afterwards. 

Source: Audiobook from Libby Public Library

(P.S. You can read this book for free by signing up for a free trial of Audible, which gives you two free audiobooks of your choice!)