From debut author Lindsey Frazier comes a raw and honest memoir about identity, overcoming trauma, and the sheer beauty that can be found in life if we open ourselves up to love.
"I can't do this anymore," Lindsey Frazier says to her husband, moments after throwing her wedding ring across the room. It's here that her memoir Oh Love, Come Close begins, just one week after her wedding day.
Volatile, unpredictable, and emotionally charged, Frazier finds that the primary emotion she's experiencing during the so-called honeymoon phase of marriage isn't happiness or joy--it's loss. She can't shake the feeling that a part of her died the day she got married. When she finally faces her past, she discovers pieces of herself--of her own identity--that she never previously dared to acknowledge. After her husband's desperate pleas, she agrees to seek the help needed to navigate the murky waters that lie ahead, not just to save her marriage but to save herself. In doing so, she uncovers deep fears and unhealed traumas, the grief and losses that caused her to flee her hometown and distance herself from it all.
Oh Love, Come Close explores the emotional wounds that fragmented a woman's identity, and the retracing of steps needed to pick up the pieces left behind--her sexuality, spirituality, fidelity, and a complicated past. Frazier unearths her buried wounds and finds that in order to fully live, to fully love and be loved, she has to reclaim all the pieces of herself, no matter how painful they might be.
This searing memoir is at once vivid and dreamlike, and Frazier's arresting prose will draw readers deeply into this intimate narrative.
Praise for Oh Love, Come Close:
"The first step in healing is radical honesty. Frazier's memoir is as honest and healing as they come."
--Jedidiah Jenkins, New York Times best-selling author of To Shake the Sleeping Self and Like Streams to the Ocean
"Lindsey beautifully captures what it means to be wholly human. No fairy-tale beginnings or endings. Just a whole lot of discomfort, perseverance, growth, and joy."
--Nick Laparra, host of the Let's Give a Damn podcast, environmentalist, speaker, and investigative journalist
"This is more than a memoir, and it is a stunning memoir. It's a dramatic tale layered with good storytelling. If you have ever wondered 'why, ' this book will be a gift. It's a lesson in not just asking why, but learning how. It's spellbinding and humbling. It's funny and heartbreaking. All the things a good memoir offers."
―Becca Stevens, founder of Thistle Farms, author of Love Heals, and social entrepreneur