It doesn't take long to find yourself in McColl's rhythm, attuned to the beautiful colors and fragrances and tastes that lodge themselves in our memories.... McColl's argument -- that these small moments make up a life, that these small moments are life - is persuasive, and it is presented with humor and charm.... This is a book about an extraordinary figure who was a housewife, mother, and divorcee. The word 'mother' doesn't entirely do her justice, and yet that's what this memoir does: does her justice, in more than a summarizing word.--Rachel Kong, New York Times Book Review
Joy Enough is a diamond in book form, a beauty forged by the weight of loss and learning. It stunned me with its taut clarity, with the way it probes - quietly, gently, unflinchingly - the parts of life that a lot of us don't like to look at: death, divorce, the pleasures and pitfalls of the body. This may be Sarah McColl's debut, but it's a towering achievement by any standard. McColl has a rare talent, and it shines.--Molly Wizenberg, author of A Homemade Life and Delancey
Joy Enough is so compelling that I stayed up most of the night while traveling by train in a sleeper car. Sarah McColl's exquisite memoir is the perfect balm for anyone who has experienced the sharp sting of loneliness or inhabited the liminal space between grief and happiness.--Michele Filgate, writer and contributing editor at LitHub
Written with enough beauty to stop clocks ticking and heart's beating.... McColl's resonant first book is resplendent with love, and the hope she finds in discovering that her unfathomable grief also carved a space for more profound joy.--Annie Bostrom, Booklist (starred review)
Beautifully tender; a deceptively delicate slow-burn story of grief and love and the desire to hold close those we love.--Sophie Mackintosh. Booker Longlisted author of The Water Cure
What if the greatest love you ever had was your mother? In sensuous and elliptical prose, Sarah McColl takes us into the small spaces that contain a life, revealing both the emptiness left by the loss of her mother and the joy that endures. I was intoxicated by this book from start to finish. McColl has a superfan now.--Sarah Hepola, author of Blackout