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The Geography of Love: A Memoir | 
| Author: Glenda Burgess
Publisher: Broadway
Category: Book
List Price: $22.95
Buy New: $6.25
You Save: $16.70 (73%)
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Avg. Customer Rating:  10 reviews
Sales Rank: 37348
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 320
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.8
Dimensions (in): 8.3 x 5.6 x 1.3
ISBN: 0767928598
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54
EAN: 9780767928595
ASIN: 0767928598
Publication Date: August 5, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: Expedited shipping available
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Product Description
“If I had given it much thought, I might have hesitated to marry a man for whom at the age of 45 much of the past was too painful to consider--for either of us. Truthfully, thought had little to do with it. Instinct did--the instinct to seize a sure and ebullient happiness or go down trying.”
Falling in love is arguably the greatest risk and leap of faith any of us take. There’s no guarantee for future happiness, no protection from the ugly scars of the past, no shield from tragedy--this powerful memoir reminds us why we bother.
At a lakeside cafe in the summer of 1988, 31-year-old Glenda Burgess is sitting across from 44-year-old Kenneth Grunzweig and falling in love. Then Ken confesses that he has already been widowed twice, under harrowing circumstances. This tragic past, the age difference, Ken’s emotionally scarred teenage daughter--all might be enough to send anyone running, but Glenda believed in her instincts, believed more than anything that this lovely, generous man would shape her life. And Ken, who with his heartbreaking losses had long said that he’d given up on love, came to share a sense of their romantic destiny. The two embark on the sort of love affair that many of us don’t believe exist anymore--a grand romance that buoys them through the birth of two kids andfifteen magical years of marriage until tragedy strikes again in the form of a shadowy spot on Ken’s lung. The journey that follows will test their resilience and strengthen their devotion.
The Geography of Love is a book about believing in first instincts and second chances.
It is a poignant exploration of the depths of the human heart and our ability to love and to trust no matter the obstacles.
It is a reminder that “real” life is always richer, stranger, and more extraordinary than fiction.
It is the most moving love story you’ll read this year.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 5 more reviews...
Devastating book.... but so worth it October 1, 2008
Let me state upfront that I picked this book up in kind of a hurry, not knowing much about it, other than "early-30s woman finally finds true love with older guy (mid-40s)". So imagine my surprise when I started reading this book.
In the first third of "The Geography of Love" (310 pages), author Glenda Burgess retells how she unexpectedly found true love with Ken, a man 14 years her senior, someone who had lost two previous wives (one to a car accident, another to a (potentially suspicious) murder, of all things. It made me turn the pages, and when at one point Ken says out of the blue "I can't do this anymore", when the couple had 2 small children, I feared the worst (as in: he wants to leave the marriage). But Ken was referring to a corporate job he didn't want to do any longer.
After that, the book takes a completely unexpected turn, and where the book really takes off. Ken is discovered to have a cancer of some sort, and the second half of the book deals with how Glenda and Ken are dealing with this. This is when the book becomes a devastating read. I found myself choking back a number of times, particularly in the last 50 pages or so. Separate but simultaneously with all this, the author brings a great portrait of other family members, including in particular her challenging relationship with her mother. In all, I was very taken by this book. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!
Visceral, Moving, Cleansing Story August 25, 2008
In my view, one cannot read too many love stories. I struck out for forty years, suffering a devastating early divorce after nine awful years. Then one day my wonderful Ginger came into my life. That was a quarter century ago. I have always credited my ability to be ready for my wife's sweet love because I took the time to read great stories about relationships. That's why I have called A Thousand Summers, by Garson Kanin, my favorite book along those lines--until I read Glenda Burgess' memoir, The Geography of Love. Glenda's book will be a part of me, and a part of my relationship tools for the next twenty-five years. Maybe beyond!
I have rarely read a book that has touched me on so many fronts August 24, 2008
With her beautiful skill with the English language, Glenda has shared with us the experiences of many lifetimes. It touches on so many aspects of our life journey with clarity, honesty, and wisdom. It shows how unconditional love can transcend and overcome the many hurdles and difficulties that life throws at us, how even the most difficult burdens can ultimately enrich us, how to live and cherish the present moment even as we cope with the deep echoes of the past and the uncertainties of the future. Thank you Glenda for this gift.
 Moving.... August 23, 2008
8 out of 8 found this review helpful
Glenda Burgess, 30, a former U.S. State Department management analyst, leaves her job and returns home to Spokane, WA. By coincidence, she meets Ken Grunzweig, a 44-year old software executive in a cafe and falls in love. She learns that Grunzweig has been married twice before - his first wife died in his arms in a tragic car accident. His second wife was murdered shortly after they were separated and Grunzweig remained under suspicion for murder. Despite the wide age difference, the dark clouds of his prior marriages and dealing with consequences of being a "hated" step-mother to Grunzweig's teenage daughter, Burgess plunges ahead in a leap of faith. Her instinctive bet is a good one as the relationship blossoms into a beautiful romance and the birth of two children. The second half of the book centers around her husband acquiring and fighting cancer and the struggle they face battling the disease - with a particularly moving finish.
"The two of us would crawl across the days on nothing but heart and will if we had to."
In the memoir, Burgess also examines her own life and her relationship with her Mother - yearning to give her Mother love and yearning to receive her Mother's love - and never fulfilling either - her hands outreached to give and receive - and the connection never made. Heartbreaking...
Burgess' writing is direct, clear and to-the-point especially in her telling of the rapid deterioration of her husband's health and how she copes with it.
"All around me were patients in some part of a cycle: a cycle of beginnings and ends, of treatment, of illness, even chemotherapy as a palliative, a merciful extension of the inevitable, a kindness. Here I finally understood the corrosion of cancer on the human spirit. Cancer was gunning for Ken in this very room."
There are some terrific insights in her darkest moments as she copes -
"I had recently come to the conclusion that all we can do is row the boat we're in. Greet each day with the best of intentions - it's not given to us to set the compass, chart the stars, or make life work for everyone we love. We aren't given that power or control. We are only given the grace of intention."
And another passage:
"Who does this? I wondered. Who chooses a place of rest even as they hope for miracles? Who squabbles between burial or cremation, vault or niche, the monument - what size, color? Who buys adjoining gravesites for their kids? Some bizarre idea to keep the family together?"
I felt that this story was being told to me by a good friend - turning the pages and living through every ache, pain and loss. I did long for her to fill more of the gaps - to gain a better understanding of how her husband dealt with the death of his first wife and why he loved her so - and how he dealt with the murder of his second wife and accusations leveled against him. To get a deeper understanding about her husband's daughter and how she struggled with the murder of her mother and her dying Father and what she thought of Burgess. And finally, why her Mother had such a difficult time expressing her love for her.
I agree with the author's comments on the back of the book jacket - this is a very personal and emotionally moving story - with intimate moments of her life put on paper "to give people license to dissect and critique it, or worse yet, disregard it." Glenda Burgess, your love story will not be disregarded and will not be forgotten.
Amazing & moving--will remind you how precious real love is August 23, 2008
This book is utterly amazing. A memoir that reads like a novel, it tells the story of the kind of love we all dream of finding in our own lives, a love that truly transcends death.
Not only that, it is the story of a woman's difficult relationship with a difficult mother who is prickly and hard to love. No one has the luxury of focusing completely on a romantic partner--the rest of our family inevitably intervenes in some way.
Glenda's honest and unsparing account of her challenges in dealing with her mother, who falls ill while Glenda is also facing her beloved Ken's cancer, will ring true for any of us who have ground our teeth in our role as the "adult child". She brings that same honesty to her wrestling match with the realities of Ken's cancer diagnosis, treatment, and the effects on their marriage.
Her love story will amaze you, move you to tears (lots of them), and make you turn to the one you love and tell him or her how precious it is to love and be loved.
A stellar reminder that we all have only moments to live, and moments to love.
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