Otherwise I’m Fine: A Memoir is an elegant and alluring story written by Barbara Presnell and published in 2025 by The University of South Carolina Press. In this 252-page memoir, Presnell seamlessly weaves together events, place-based information, historical details, and personal memories to depict a difficult story of three siblings who at a young age unexpectedly lose their father due to medical complications, and their personal struggles and journeys that follow. Decades later they seek to understand some of their father’s history, including when he fought in World War II and trudged from France to Germany. With this pursuit in mind, Presnell and her siblings, Edwin and Ellen, along with two of their spouses, travel to Europe and spend three weeks tracing their father’s passage using a small folded map he kept with a red zig zag line showing the towns he and his troop passed.
A prominent theme of Presnell’s book is healing following loss. Presnell writes about cracks that emerged in relationships between her and her mother, and with Edwin and Ellen, following her father’s death. Honest about these fragile relationships, Presnell equally is forthcoming about how these fissures were mended. Honest conversations helped to facilitate some of this healing, as well as a willingness to share perspectives. Presnell recalls she did not completely understand what her mother and siblings experienced following her father’s death, as they did not comprehend her own unique feelings. In a poignant moment, Presnell remembers when she was ill as an adult and her mother came to take care of her. While Presnell laid sick in bed and her mother wrote checks by the bedside, they held a conversation about how they both felt left following her father’s death. At the end of this conversation, Presnell’s mother shared “’Well, we’re both back now. That’s what matters.’” In reading Presnell’s book, the reader intuitively draws text to self-connections and thinks about some of their own family fractures, and how and if these can be repaired.
Presnell organizes her memoir in an attention-grabbing manner. Rather than present her story as a straight chronological narrative, her chapters move back and forth between the past when she was a child, and the contemporary period when she and her siblings are adults. Her navigation between past and present contexts works well. She shows how childhood experiences and memories carry forward to the current time.
Clear strengths of Presnell’s book are her forthrightness and honesty, as well as her attention to detail. Presnell shows the reader what it is like to be at Omaha Beach, a section of Normandy France, where Allied troops came ashore on D-Day on June 6, 1944. This was the beginning of liberation of western Europe from Nazi Germany. She writes, “Driving to the beaches in the tour van as we wind through villages, passing buildings and homes, we see American, British, and Canadian flags flutter from windows and porches side by side with French flags.” Presnell also depicts what it is like to stand near the Elbe River in Germany – a spot where a photo was taken of her father, along with two Soviet men, when the war ended. She writes, “A thick cluster of trees – oaks, maple, sycamore, and others I recognize – have grown up in this once sparse place, the Elbe River courses through this flatland, and the grass of this patch is uncut. Sixty-nine Aprils ago, this ground was abuzz with activity, hundreds of soldiers, speaking different languages, worn out from war but thrilled by the significance of this moment …The war was over.”
Barbara Presnell
Presnell’s captivating memoir will appeal to different groups. It is must-read for those interested in life writing. There is beauty and warmth in Presnell’s writing. It feels soulful. Individuals interested in World War II also will find thoughtful insights and information in her book. Writers drawn to creative non-fiction will learn from Presnell’s captivating style and craft as they read her stunning memoir.
Barbara Presnell studied writing and literature at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro and the University of Kentucky. Her columns, distributed by the New York Times News Service, have appeared in newspapers across the country. She lives in Lexington, North Carolina, with her husband, Bill Keesler, and rescue dog, Colby.
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