"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)
"An unforgettable debut" —Erin Shea, Library Journal (starred review)
"McColl is adept at evocative images that protract the moments of her story and land with sudden, crystalline perfection." —J.C. Hallman, The Brooklyn Rail
"Stunningly original writing...exquisite" —Kate Tuttle, Los Angeles Times
"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 divorcée. 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 Khong, The New York Times Book Review
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"Sarah McColl’s Joy Enough resonates with the immediacy of a love letter and the dark wonder of a dream. A tender, candid, force field of an elegy, compressed and expansive at once." —Paul Lisicky, author of The Narrow Door: A Memoir of Friendship
"In beautiful, spare prose, Sarah McColl offers an elegant and deeply-felt meditation on loss that is steeped in the pleasures of this life: in good bread and soft sweaters, friendship, flirtation, and especially love. Joy Enough is a memoir about the death of a mother and a marriage, yes, but more than that, it’s about the new life that can spring from those empty spaces. A gorgeous, painful, exhilarating debut." —Kirstin Valdez-Quade, author of Night at the Fiestas
"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
“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
“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
“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
“Some books are so profound they need to be shared immediately. Others are so sacred, you can't bear to loan them out. Joy Enough is both―so consider buying two copies. McColl's remarkable, pitch-perfect memoir is an exploration of the choices we make, and the ones beyond our control. Within that is a masterfully written, musically paced narrative that rocks awake your emotional center. It's not simply that McColl is a uniquely gifted writer―she is―it's that she's generous with her gifts. This book has a transformative, healing quality―it's the kind of book that will remain your dear friend, that will be there for you, long after you've finished the last page.” —Piper Weiss, author of You All Grow Up and Leave Me