steph 's Reviews > The Rainbow Comes and Goes: A Mother and Son on Life, Love, and Loss

I really liked this. I listened to this on audio book which I strongly encourage everyone to do because you can hear both Gloria and Anderson as they tell their stories in their own words. I didn't know much about either before I started listening but after chapter 1, I was utterly entranced. Gloria has been through so much, publicity and privately, and to hear her still have her internal optimism and spirit gave me hope for myself. I wasn't as enamored with Anderson's responses (but I liked how he talked about how losing his father and brother when he was young really turned him inward and made he want to be a war correspondent because he knew by age 21 that bad things really do happen to everyone). He and his mother have a good repartee and the entire conversation between them flowed and felt natural, like two friends discussing life and family.

I really liked that they grew closer. That at 91 (the age Gloria was when she and Anderson wrote and published this book), Gloria has the privilege of time and wisdom to look back on certain events in her life and see them differently, outside her own narrow or self centered point of view. One of my biggest issues with memoirs is when the subject is still too young and/or still close to the event/situation and can't discuss it without rationally because there still may be a lot of pain/hurt/resentment involved that is coloring their opinion (*cough Prince Harry cough*). Gloria talks a lot about her childhood custody case and her wild and painful teenage and adult years and listening to Anderson prob her on why she thought relatives or other people acted a certain way back then was very eye illuminating. At 91, she can see many people differently now and gives them a lot of grace and understanding into why they made the choices they made even if the end result was that it negatively impacted her. It made me reflect on my own life story and how I see thing one way when there are always multiple sides to every story and more people involved then just little old me.

Anyways, this memoir was really nice and I am so glad they both read the audiobook together because Gloria passed away in 2019 but Anderson can still hear her voice and wisdom in this recording/story and that is such a gift to have.