Author: Celice Maree
Total approximate words: 77000
“Misconceptions of Forgiveness” is a memoir. Celice has written about a part of her life when she was living in the cosmopolitan city of Dubai and was working as a flight attendant. The book is majorly focused on her failed relationships with two different men, her struggles as a single white woman in the middle east, and the pitfalls of her time zone jumping job as a flight attendant. It is a story of her being exploited by these men, emotionally, financially, and physically over and over, and over again, for years. She has written freely and boldly about the repeated physical abuse that she first faced from Harry, a Kenyan man (the man she loved for more than five years) the repeated lies on cheating and stealing, and draining her of her own hard earned money while having sexual relationships with tens of other women for years; and then from Omar, an Egyptian man (for another five years), who was a narcissistic, compulsive cheater and liar who gave the illusion of being the perfect man for any woman and then slowly and calculatedly exhausted Celice’s mental, physical and financial strength. Celice’s story gives the reader an idea of how she was raised in a first world country, where people were more straight forward and less deceptive, keeping her unprepared and unguarded when she moved to a different country, and more so when she fell for men like Harry and Omar, who came from very different countries, in essence from very different cultures. Her story gives a very realistic impression about what could possibly go wrong if two people from massively different cultures get together.
The memoir is very graphic, as Celice mentions in a chat we had, while promoting her book, and it surely is. But that is what also makes it very intimate to read. And that is what also makes it a memoir.
It is a very detailed memoir, focused on her struggle to forgive repeatedly the men she loved, and how every single time, she was let down by the same men. At certain intervals, the narration tends to get monotonous, and feels like a continuous outburst of rage, but then again, in real life when it happened, it must have just happened like that, non-stop and brutal! Celice’s story is considerably relatable to myself, and I am sure a lot of women out there, who would read this book as a lesson or as a guide for their own lives too. The narration is unapologetic and mind numbing at times, as she takes the reader through an extremely personal story through the years of trauma and torture. Celice’s humble attempt in writing her story is inspiring and brave, to say the least. I would rate this honest memoir a 6/10.
Disclaimer: This review is based on my personal reading and understanding of the book with my own limited experiences and knowledge. It doesn’t guarantee the same level of satisfaction/ dissatisfaction to other readers and the reviews could vary from individual to individual.
Nevertheless, happy reading! :)
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