Necessary Sins by Lynn Darling

Necessary Sins by Lynn Darling

I’ve often thought I’d write a book, at the very least a memoir, perhaps even resurrecting my dog-eared diary under lock and key in that old cardboard box in the attic. But Get Real! (An out-of-date teenage expression, I’ll admit).

The fact is I did not marry anyone famous, nor did I suffer unmentionable abuse as a child, nor was I deprived of shelter or food and forced to accept handouts on the street and I was not born into a privileged family so perhaps I don’t have anything worth writing about or at the very least information that would compel someone to read about.

Necessary Sins does attempt to draw one in by the title and I guess it does as our copy has been out several times. Ms. Darling was married to a famous correspondent for the Washington Post and she is a prolific writer of articles for a variety of well-known magazines and this coupled with an affair with a married man resulting in a complicated marriage relationship and ultimately a lovely child born of that commitment results in this memoir.

I’d have to admit the latter part of the book that speaks about the debilitating effects of cancer on both the physical and emotional bonds of her marriage is well written. However, I suspect were it not for the fact that the husband was a famous correspondent and the wife a known writer, this entry might well have been published by a vanity press and relegated to the shelves of family members.

Ladybookbug!