I read her first memoir The Middle Place (linked to my review) when it first came out years ago. That book chronicled her love for and relationship with her father. Glitter and Glue is her “long overdue” (as stated in her dedication) look at her relationship with her mom.
Kelly’s first experience with motherhood was when she worked as a nanny for two young kids who had recently lost their mother. Kelly was trying to figure out who she was going to be, post-college in her “see the world” experiment. She wound up broke in Australia, necessitating the job. Being a mother figure, even at such a young age, she found herself thinking about her own mother.
There are a few flashes — mostly bookended at the beginning and end — of her own current life as a mother as she recognizes the need for her own mother.
Corrigan is an honest, funny, and fluid writer. Reading this book made me pick up Lift, which I had missed and caused me to be in a situation where I am reading nine books at one time. I also want to go back and read The Middle Place, her first memoir, which I enjoyed immensely.