Decrescendo a memoir by Donna Jean Dreyer
Donna Jean Dreyer’s memoir, Decrescendo, is a journey - several journeys, actually - evenly and gently braided together to lead the reader through the experience of an extraordinary partnership that spanned decades and continents, to its end upon the death of her husband, Bill Dreyer.
In relating their childhood backgrounds, their meant-to-be meeting at a Midwestern college, their dreams, plans, and struggles as a young family, their travels, and their work around the globe for the Friends Service Committee, and the eventual settling into her caregiver’s role as her dashingly theatrical husband’s health falters, Dreyer shares with her readers humor, passion, intimacy, and - literally - heartbreak.
Dreyer’s memoir time-hops, which strengthens the fabric of her story. From a less intuitive writer, funny and touching anecdotes dropped into a manuscript could make for a tedious read, but Decrescendo pulls one in, surprises, delights, and affects. It is as thoughtfully and lovingly crafted as the marriage whose tale it tells.
Donna Jean Dreyer will be reading from her memoir at the Carolina Mountains Literary Festival, September 9 and 10, 2010 in
Review written by Lucy Doll
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