voices, they recall their lives, separately and together, and the divergent trajectories of their origins and aspirations. Frances's story moves in reverse: beginning with her dementia in old age, her narrative moves backwards into lucidity, through a cruel and loveless marriage, the birth of her son Jeffrey, and into a childhood that she recalls fondly as a time of innocence and belonging.  Joe's memories begin in childhood, a bewildered boy struggling with poverty, racism, and isolation, and we watch him grow into a manhood fraught with wrong turns, rage, betrayals, and disappointment, caring in the end for the woman he has long mistreated. The Trouble with Being Born is a stark meditation on memory and the struggle–both necessary and impossible–to remember. 

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