Saving Ellen

A coming-of-age memoir that follows a large, working-class Irish family as it plunges into chaos in the wake of a terminal diagnosis-and the author’s own hidden struggle toendurewhen her sister’s disease becomes the dark star around which they all revolve.

Financial privation and her father’s drunken scenes formed the backdrop to Maura Casey’s childhood, but her sister Ellen’s years-long struggle with kidney disease consumed her whole family. Determined to see Ellen live to adulthood, her mother fought medical advice to donate a kidney at a time when organ transplants weremedical miracles.She concealed the true impact of that decision, which would affect the family for years to come. Set in Buffalo amidst the tumult of the 1960s and 70s,Saving Ellentraces the author’s recovery from alcoholism and sexual assaultand tells ofher irrepressible older sister Ellen, who fought to claim her dream of becoming an athlete; her smart, feminist mother, whose World War II Army service prepared her to manage her own platoon of six children; and her adulterous, alcoholic father who, at the end, was haunted by his shortcomings and regrets. Despite the hard truths of her childhood,Saving Ellenis ultimately a story of humor at unexpected momentsas well asthe grace of reconciliation and gratitude.

Saving Ellenwill appeal to those who have endured the stress of caring for a chronically ill family member, with all the fraught choices that entails. Readers who have experienced the unique insanity of living in a large alcoholic family will recognize the mix of madness and humor that forms the foundation of daily life. Casey’s story has parallels to Monica Wood’sWhen We Were the Kennedys, which details the struggle her family began when her father died of a heart attack, and Jeannette Walls’The Glass Castle, with its tale of family dysfunction and siblings trying to help one another cope in a dilapidated house with an unstable father.

Author Biography

Maura Casey grew up in Buffalo, N.Y., the youngest of a large, Irish family. She has written regularly since she was thirteen. For more than thirty years, Casey was an editorial writer for three New England newspapers andThe New York Times,where she had a seat on the exaltedTimeseditorial board.Over her opinion writing career, she won more than forty journalism awards. Casey holds a BA from Buffalo State College and an MA from The American University. She and her husband Pete have two adult children and two grandchildren. They live on a small farm in Connecticut withtwo dogs and a barn cat. Casey writes a weekly column,Casey’s Catch, and when the breeze is right, sails on Long Island Sound in her sailboat,Second Wind.