Everything I Have Is Yours: A Marriage
Eleanor Henderson. Flatiron, $27.99 (400p) ISBN 978-1-250-78794-1
Henderson (Ten Thousand Saints) combines a suspenseful medical mystery with rocky romance to chronicle the tumultuous history of her marriage in this surprisingly bland memoir. When her husband, Aaron, became the host for a slew of undiagnosable medical conditions—which began in 2011 as a rash, and gave way to skin lesions and severe psychological issues that lasted for years—she was forced to contend with two impossible questions: “Are you with the deluded patient? Or the unfeeling doctors?” From here, Henderson jumps through time to depict her and Aaron’s beginnings as messy, passionate young lovers in college in the ’90s, and, decades later, the trauma and addiction that haunted their relationship and family of four. Throughout, Henderson documents in exhaustive detail her ongoing struggle with her “executively dysfunctional” husband—often comparing him to a child—his “delusional parasitosis,” substance abuse, and the way doctors dismiss his health issues. Though the book is ostensibly about love, Henderson offers few clues as to why she and her husband have stayed together despite the contempt, anger, and betrayal endemic in their relationship. It’s a gut-wrenching story, but it’s also one without heart. (Oct.)
Details
Reviewed on: 06/24/2021
Genre: Nonfiction
Paperback - 400 pages - 978-1-250-78796-5