Marrow Memory: Essays of Discovery by Margaret Nowaczyk

Marrow Memory: Essays of Discovery by Margaret Nowaczyk is a beautiful and generous collection of nonfiction. The author, Margaret Nowaczyk, is a scientist working in her field of pediatric clinical genetics, and a writer with a command of language in a story-telling style. There is a depth to her writing that is seductive and enlightening, while at the same time, she offers such an educational benefit to her essays. Nowaczyk shares her complex studies and vast knowledge with unabashed humanity, with excellent writing, creating an enticing balance. Her balance between information and personal memory recollection is perfectly paced and revealed in a highly readable construct, with flow and purpose to her writing.

“The bone marrow, this spongy, cellular matter that fills the tiniest recesses of our bones, is the innermost tissue in our bodies: it develops from the middle layer of the three-layered embryo. One cannot go any deeper than that. As such, it is an apt metaphor for our deepest self and it is from there that I wrote these essays … Genetics and medicine are the underpinnings of my life, experiences and memories are what give it meaning and sense.”

Nowaczyk is a medical doctor and pediatric geneticist; she is also “a woman, a mother, a wife, an emigrant and a suffering mind”. This whole human approach to her essays is in sync making her writing compelling from a reader’s perspective. One does not need to be concerned that the subject matter is written for medical students. It is written for everyone who has felt the fear, happiness, and shame that makes us who we are. The essays in Marrow Memory are relatable and highly embraceable works reaching out from Nowaczyk’s heart directly to her readers.

Margaret Nowaczyk came to Canada, via Austria, from Communist Poland when she was a young teen. She learned to speak English, make friends, and fit in. All the while never losing her dream of going to medical school to understand how the human body works. In her essay “Marrow Memory,” she returns to Poland for a visit with her children and searches for “what’s bred in the bone,” she calls it marrow memory. In “This is Radio Warsaw…” she describes her favourite broadcast she listened to in Poland and how the radio waves relate to her ability to hear. “Laundry DNA” brings her to a vivid recollection of her family’s bedsheet washing in Poland as the author washes and irons her sheets in Canada during COVID-19. This leads to a revelation of her maternal grandmother working as a laundress with other young women before WWII. One won’t look at our modern conveniences in the same way after reading the challenges of these young women in days gone by. In “The Art of Loving” readers are introduced to a Polish sex education pioneer who wrote a book called The Art of Loving that is similar to a familiar The Joy of Sex. But in Communist Poland? Nowaczyk as a developing young girl was as anxious to get her hands on a copy as many of us were, although worlds apart. Wherever we are growing up in the world, the human experience of developing into an adult from one’s youth is the same biologically, complete with many curiosities of the mind!

Nowaczyk covers topics such as daughter-father in “Tato” and mother-daughter in “A Mother-Daughter Phrasebook: Definitions” where readers find the differences between those relationships in her life. She is very interested in genealogy, where she discovers much information on an unnamed grandmother, and why she is so eager to find information on past relatives.

“Genealogy isn’t just the discovery of the bare dates of our ancestors’ lives — it unveils the mystery of the past. We feel the presence of those long gone because our ancestors live in us … Knowing of them and thus knowing them provides a sense of belonging.”

“Almost Perfect” is a touching essay about a mother and father in Nowaczyk’s clinical office with their baby girl. It gives the reader a feeling of being whisked back in time to the beginning of a specific DNA “stutter” and what is in store generations later.

Given the topics, a sense of humour is present that is honest and true to nature. “Dyed in the Hair” brings up the chemical components of hair dye, something commonly used and seldom thought about, the world over. In Marrow Memory, a specific search for the meaning of the word “empathy” was found within the essays. The author lets us know there is no direct translation from Polish to English, but rest assured, an abundance of empathy is included. Nowaczyk never forgets her accomplishments as a member of the medical and scientific community, at the same time, she is completely straightforward about her abilities, struggles, and ongoing questions as a woman, wife, mother, daughter, and friend.

Marrow Memory is an exceptional collection. I admit that I read one essay before going on to another, and reflected on it. This led to reading more and more, reflecting and reflecting; such is the ability of the author to bring forward her candid work as a writer in such an incredibly personal manner. I felt as though I was in Margaret Nowaczyk’s direct presence. I was fascinated and swept up in the collection as a whole. This is a work where I learned something about genetics, a great deal about the beauty of this unique writer herself, and of my own feelings that rose to the surface, where they had been nesting well within the undergrowth. Marrow Memory: Essays of Discovery by Margaret Nowaczyk is sure to touch its reader directly where it’s aimed to do so — deep within the bone and directly into the heart.

Born in Poland, Margaret Nowaczyk is a pediatric clinical geneticist and a professor at McMaster University and DeGroote School of Medicine. Her short stories and essays have appeared in Canadian, Polish and American literary magazines and anthologies. She lives in Hamilton, ON, with her husband and two sons. Visit her website at www.margaretnowaczyk.ca.

Publisher: Wolsak & Wynn (June 18, 2024)
Paperback 8″ x 6″ | 186 pages
ISBN: 9781989496909

Carrie Stanton

Managing Editor

TMR’s Managing Editor Carrie Stanton has a BA in Political Science from the University of Calgary. She is the author of The Jewel and Beast Bot, and picture books, Emmie and the Fierce Dragon and The Gardener. Carrie loves to write stories that grow wings and transport readers everywhere. She reads and enjoys stories from every genre.