In Kathleen Basi’s new book, A Song for the Road, Miriam Tedesco’s husband and teenage children were killed by a drunk driver who crossed the median. A year later, she’s still in a tailspin, dealing with regrets and loss of faith. The arrival of a bouquet of flowers—one like those her husband always sent on their anniversary—she becomes completely unwound. She, at the urging of her best friend, starts to move on. When she opens her daughter’s computer, she finds an app that her kids made, detailing a cross-country trip for Miriam and her husband to take while their children were at band camp. On hearing and seeing the videos of her children, she determines to make the trip solo for their sakes. Thus, armed with a cello and a guitar, she embarks on a musical pilgrimage from their home to the beach in California near the site where they were killed. She picks up an unlikely companion, a pregnant young woman, along the way.
This book was funny and sad—enough that I sniffled through most of it. But as a woman of a certain age, I enjoyed reading about another woman of a certain age pulling her life together. That Miriam faces flat tires, tornados, rainstorms, and the near-death of her companion and survives is empowering, as empowering at that fabulous movie, Thelma and Louise.
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A Song for the Road is available through:
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