(DePaul University/Jeff Carrion)"Like Love"
By Michele Morano, Department of English
A
memoir-in-essays about unconsummated romance, "Like Love" turns romantic clichés inside out and challenges us to rethink our notions about what it means to love. This book tells hard and necessary truths about the importance of desire in growing, traveling, mourning, parenting, and figuring out who you are in the world.
What's the most surprising thing you learned while writing this book?
(Image courtesy of Ohio State University Press)
I did a lot of research into the neurobiology of attraction for this book. One surprising thing I learned is that infatuation lights up the same areas of the brain as looking at artwork you find beautiful. I love the notion that falling "in love" with a painting lies on the same continuum as being attracted to a potential romantic partner.
Who or what inspired you to write this book?
This book was inspired by my mother, the first love of my life and the first source of heartbreak as well. When she left my father during my adolescence, she and I broke up in a way. Although we came together again and remained in close touch until her death, something irreparable persisted in our relationship. "Like Love" explores that story by interweaving episodes from our relationship with episodes of "unconsummated romance" in my adulthood, exploring crushes and desire and odd entanglements that don't always have a future, but that sometimes help us understand who we are and how we live.
About the author:
Michele Morano is a professor in DePaul's Department of English. She is the author of "Like Love" and "Grammar Lessons: Translating a Life in Spain." Her writing has received honors and awards from the Rona Jaffe Foundation, the American Association of University Women, the Illinois Arts Council, and the New York Public Library, among others. Her work has appeared in many anthologies and literary journals, including Best American Essays, Fourth Genre, Ninth Letter, and WaveForm: Twenty-First-Century Essays by Women. She is currently on research leave and will resume chairing the Department of English in January 2021.
Publisher, release date, length:
Ohio State University Press (Mad Creek Books imprint), September 2020, 232 pages
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