Life Lived in Reverse: A Memoir [Paperback]

This memoir details Lucille Griswold's journey to become the woman she is today. The author begins by examining her Italian American heritage and upbringing in a small town in New Jersey in the 1940s and 1950s. Griswold reflects on her experiences and compares her family and childhood with those of other Italian Americans whose works she has read. She concludes that there is no Italian American (or ethnic) stereotype in society that holds true, since individual upbringing and experiences shape each person's personality and ethnic identity. Griswold relates her experiences in education, explores gender relationships in the workplace, and reveals the challenges, including negotiating family roles and experiencing cultural differences, of being a military wife in the Vietnam era.Lucille M. Griswoldand her husband Bill live in Maryland, where she is a writing consultant for the Bill and Melinda Gates-sponsored Gateway to College Program. This is her fourth book.

So often one reads about the complaints of life; Ms. Griswold takes the opposite point of view, keeping herself open to the goodness and greatness that ordinary life offers each of us. She provides an insider's view of a military spouse and more. What is most engaging about that which she wrote is the integrity and candor that she brought to every aspect of her well traveled years. Laura Knott-Twine

This small volume is structured so that each chapter resembles a standalone essay. I found myself thinking of them as life lessons. Griswold's work is a rich history in positive attitude and determination. Feminist Review

Lucille Griswold's buoyant good humor and affection for others show through on every page of her memoir. This is a voice speaking for the silent majority of mid-20th-century America-a proud and positive account of growing up Italian-American and coming of age as a military wife in the Vietnam era. Cathy Stanton, Ph.D.

Griswold's work is a rich historylc.