Split the Baby

It takes great courage to return to childhood. Not just the exposure we risk or the chance we will reveal more than we intend. To write memoir well, you must fully return to that time period, immersing yourself. You must make it real again. Not just the bad parts but, sometimes more heartbreakingly, the good parts as well. Lauren Rhoades navigates these rocky shoals of childhood to bring us a beautiful memoir, “Split the Baby.”

“Split the Baby: A Memoir in Pieces” is, as the title implies, a childhood defined by splitting. The split of divorce that leads to split families, split homes, split love, even split religion, a path Rhoades traverses in her own unique way. Fairness becomes a major theme of her Colorado childhood as she tries to be fair in her allocations of time, loyalty, and love.

But the Land of Divorce is not fair. I am the beneficiary of divorce. At the age of 12, I gained a new daddy when my widowed mother remarried. Despite my Mamo’s warning (“Be good around Mr. Van Hecke. Your mother has to love you. He does not.”), my new Daddy loved me as unconditionally as anyone who has ever come into my life. But my new family was at the expense of my beloved step-sister and brother’s broken family. Their loss, my gain. Divorce, like life, is not fair.

Pick up a copy of this deeply thoughtful, beautifully written memoir. For yourself. For someone you know who might benefit from its healing read. It’s good to know that in “Split the Baby,” the baby turns out just fine.

ps Take a look at Rhoades’ Substack Rhoades, now a Mississippian, offers interviews, literary talks, Southern food blogs, and a whole lot more. You’ll want to sign up, particularly if you have any connection to Mississippi or the South.