April 22, 2020
Sacred Reads: Love Me Back, Merritt Tierce
This is a compelling, visceral account of Marie, a young, single-mother, who waits tables in a series of Texas restaurants. When she wants to be, she is good at her job and works hard - she takes time to study the wines for the new menu - but she is also hell-bent on a path of self-destruction. She self-harms, has an extremely abusive relationship with drugs and alcohol and is compulsively promiscuous. However, although these issues are inescapable - and fill many pages - they are somehow not the essence of the book, which cleverly observes the detail and thrumming energy of working in a restaurant. Love Me Back is not for the faint-hearted - and definitely not for the prudish - but it is intoxicating and brilliantly executed.
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