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Alive Day
Alive Day: A Memoir | Karie Fugett
4 posts | 2 read | 2 to read
A searing, unflinchingly intimate memoir about one young couple caught up in the machinery of Americas military system, learning to live and love through war and all that comes after Astonishing . . . both a love story and a gripping account of the cost of war.Stephanie Land, bestselling author of Maid and Class Karie Fugett is living out of her car in a Kmart parking lot when her boyfriend, Cleve, suggests, Maybe we could get married or somethin. Karie says yes out of love but also out of convenience. As a twenty-year-old high school dropout who ran away from her family and recently lost her job, Karie has nowhere else to turn. Just months after they elope, Cleves Marine unit is deployed to Iraq. It isnt long before Karie gets the call: Cleves Humvee has been hit by an IED, and hes suffered severe injuries. Karie rushes to Walter Reed, where shes told its a miracle that her husband has survived. Happy Alive Day, man, a fellow vet says to Cleve, explaining that this will always be the day when he was given a second chance at life. Newlyweds barely out of their teens, Karie and Cleve are thrust into utterly foreign roles. Karie tries to adapt to her job as a caregiver, navigating the labyrinthine system of veterans affairs, hospital bureaucracies, and doctors who do little more than shrug when she raises concerns about Cleves dependency on painkillers. It is clear to Karie that Cleve is using opiates to dull a pain that is more than physical. She catches his first overdose, but what if she cant save him a second time? Will she still be able to save herself? Fugetts story depicts an oft-overlooked reality of war: the experience of the many thousands of caregivers and spousesmostly women, mostly young, mostly poorwhose lives have been shattered by battles fought against enemies abroad and against addiction at home. Tender, vivid, and laced with dark humor, Alive Day is at once an epic and engrossing love story, a testament to the resilience of the human spirit, and a powerful indictment of the sins of a nation.
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Erinreadsthebooks
Alive Day: A Memoir | Karie Fugett
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Pickpick

Sad and depressing, to be honest, but isn‘t that to be expected from a memoir of a wife whose husband loses his leg in the war? I think the first half was stronger than the second half; I would‘ve liked more ‘here‘s what‘s wrong with how we handle our injured vets and here‘s what needs to change,‘ and maybe that was my fault going into a memoir expecting something else. It‘s not something I‘ll remember or recommend, but it was fine. 3 stars.

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Erinreadsthebooks
Alive Day: A Memoir | Karie Fugett
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marleed
Alive Day: A Memoir | Karie Fugett
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Pickpick

I don‘t think this is the most well-written of memoirs, but it‘s a gut punch nonetheless. It is a testament to the poor who fight the wealthy man‘s war. I can‘t stop thinking of so many starry-eyed young lovers who are so ill-equipped to be caretakers when the ravages of war takes hold.

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Erinreadsthebooks
Alive Day: A Memoir | Karie Fugett
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Seems like the most perfect day to start this memoir 🇺🇸 ❤️🤍💙