Member-only story
Dear Mr. You
30 quotes from Mary-Louise Parker’s memoir
Mary-Louise Parker’s book Dear Mr You came out a few years ago, and I still think about it a lot. It’s a memoir in letters, in which she addresses the important men in her life — both real and imagined. It’s a charming and quirky book, witty and playful, smart and slightly trippy at times.
Here’s a flavour of the book, with a quote from some of the letters.
Dear Daddy
You sold or mortgaged something and booked a family Euro-tour — not my dream, but you were so happy to give me this trip you couldn’t afford that I acted excited, hoping there would be a boy on a train who would not know English and kiss me.
Dear Yaqui Indian Boy
I stayed fixed on you, your brown eyes, your mouth as you advanced on me, who’d never had a boy walk to her before. Not in that way, to choose me.
Dear Risk Taker
No one wants to hear about the congenital melancholy that gnaws at the soul of a teenage girl, and there was no one for me to tell. Skulking through life as a loser was oddly shaming though, and has continued to train me through realities that flat out contradicted it.
