Momentum by Emily Brown is an interesting diversion from the standard memoir. Her childhood was anything but normal, surrounded by parental and sibling disinterest, psychological abuse, and a distinct lack of love and affection. Growing up in the 1950s and 1960s, ironically, her psychiatrist father, especially after his divorce from her mother, showed no inclination to be involved in the author’s life, where she principally lived with her equally detached and uninterested mother. Her father’s new marriage and stepfamily seemed to be his only interest. Her mother was also self-centered, did her own thing, and, perhaps most damaging of all, constantly railed against her children for being the cause of her not being able to pursue her interests and plans in life. Not surprisingly, as soon as Emily was able to leave and attend college, she began her lifelong search for belonging, love, and validation as both a woman and a person.

Emily Brown’s childhood of parental neglect and forced self-sufficiency is one many readers will identify with. Momentum tells the story of a young woman who suffered from both a lack of love and a burning desire to find somewhere to fit in. It is ironic that she initially found that sense of belonging inside an almost cult-like organization called the Democratic Workers Party (DWP). Emily’s story is a well-told, well-written journey of self-discovery. She certainly had some fascinating adventures along the way, which will keep readers engaged and looking for more. Interestingly, it is the children of the elite and the middle class who tend to find their humanity and conscience to rally against the gross inequality that exists, especially in capitalist societies, for marginalized sectors of the community. History somewhat repeats. If we look at what is happening in the geo-political climate today, so many of the ideals espoused in this memoir of the 60s, 70s, 80s, and beyond have real resonance today. This is an easy-to-read and satisfying memoir that I thoroughly enjoyed. I highly recommend it.

In Momentum, Emily Brown recounts her life from adolescence in Beverly Hills through adulthood, shaped by political activism, marriage, motherhood, and international study. After her parents, Saul and Zella, divorced, she moved between households in Los Angeles and Berkeley, adapting to changing expectations and long absences. As a university student, she joins a Marxist–Leninist organization that demands secrecy, financial contribution, and total commitment, eventually relocating across North America to support its expansion. When the group dissolves, she and her husband rebuild their lives through graduate study in Ottawa and research in Budapest during the final years of state socialism. Brown later establishes a career in marketing and finance while raising her son, Neal. As her parents age and illness alters family roles, she revisits the earlier ruptures that defined her path.

Memoirs have a tendency to be really hit or miss when a reader does not know, or even know of, the author. It has to be unique and special to draw us in, and Emily Brown’s Momentum is exactly the type of memoir that accomplishes it. I love how Brown talks so honestly about her time with the infamous Marline Dixon, with Brown working at the Democratic Workers Party's actual radical print shop. She was also part of the emergency meeting on the party's dissolution. As someone who lives smack in the middle between the Red Lion, where Marx wrote his manifesto, and the socialist William Morris's Kelmscott House, I was fascinated by Brown's involvement with Dixon. Better still, Brown's upbringing included living in Beverly Hills and Pacific Palisades, so going on an armchair tour with her via a second-class train through Eastern Europe is surreal in the best possible way. The writing style is intelligent and comfortably conversational, and with an exceptional life that reads as entertainingly as fiction, the fact that this is her real life is perfection on the page. Very highly recommended.