Postcards from Within
Savita Harjani
Beaver’s Pond Press (2023)
ISBN: 978-1643436166
Reviewed by Leslie Anne Smith for Reader Views (01/2024)
“Postcards from Within: Random Ramblings of an Ordinary Human” is the debut work of Savita Harjani, a now-retired lawyer. “Postcards from Within” explains the author’s decision to pause her personal life and details her experience as a full-time caretaker for her mother in the final years of her life. The result is an emotional, touching memoir that explores our relationships with our parents, mortality, religion, and the stress of caregiving. Harjani has an honest, uplifting voice as she explores her memories and struggles.
Harjani explores this part of her life through letters and diary-like entries. She communicates mostly with the universe and tries to make sense of her emotions and experiences as best as any ordinary human can. It’s an emotional ride, but Harjani’s natural wit and outlook on her situation remain a constant comfort throughout.
The book is divided into four sections, each covering a period during the author’s time as a caretaker. Each section is divided into short bursts of chapters. These bite-sized, diary-style entries make it easy to pause when you start feeling it a bit too much. Harjani talks about all the difficult parts of caregiving, and the happy moments as well, even when those seemed to taper off. Her relationship with her mother is quite touching. We spend the course of the book watching the author struggle with becoming her mother’s mother, while also desperately wanting her own mother. This dimension of the parent-child relationship is something universal, and difficult to capture. But capture it Harjani does!
As someone who is currently supporting my mother through some less serious health issues, this memoir came to me at a vulnerable time. I found the writing to be accessible and vulnerable. It almost feels like you’re reading letters from a friend. The inclusion of line drawings periodically was a lovely touch. This book felt like an intimate look into someone’s journal, which is a privilege to have. One of my favorite reads!
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