The Murmur of Everything Moving
Maureen Stanton
Columbus State University Press (2025)
ISBN: 979-8991456500
Reviewed by Sarah Osman for Reader Reviews (01/2026)
In Maureen Stanton’s emotionally stirring memoir, The Murmur of Everything Moving, she reflects on a complex relationship she had in her 20s. Steve was a few years older, a rugged electrician with children, who, despite his baggage, deeply loved Stanton. Once Stanton moved to Michigan to be with Steve, the couple was hit with a massive bomb: Steve was diagnosed with cancer. The rest of Stanton’s memoir grapples with the heavy toll being a caretaker took on her, not just emotionally, but financially and physically.
Stanton’s prose is beautiful. Her sentences flow together seamlessly as she effortlessly navigates us between scenes of Steve’s treatments, the crummy hotels she stayed in, and her efforts to balance her job and family. At the same time, Stanton captures the uncertainty and turmoil that plague your 20s. When she first meets Steve, she’s unsure of what she wants to do; the only thing she’s certain of is her love for Steve. That love dictates the rest of her life in a way that only a first love can. In addition to being a meditation on being a caregiver, The Murmur of Everything Moving is also a coming-of-age story.
Throughout the memoir, Stanton touches on all of the burdens cancer brings. One of the biggest is the financial aspect. Stanton and Steve come from working-class backgrounds, and the enormous expenses of Steve’s treatment are one of the biggest conflicts in the book. If there was ever an argument for universal healthcare in the states, this is it, as the couple goes to extreme lengths to afford his treatment. And while The Murmur of Everything Moving takes place in the 1980s, the financial struggles are more apt than ever.
Stanton also explores how Steve’s cancer impacted their sexual relationship. She yearns for Steve’s touch, but muses, “How could I allow myself to feel pleasure when Steve felt pain almost constantly?” It’s another aspect of cancer we often don’t think about unless one has had a partner with cancer. Your physical love for that person doesn’t disappear, but they often cannot return that love physically.
What makes Stanton’s memoir so poignant is how universal her story is. While not all of us have had a partner with cancer, many of us have experienced the ups and downs of a first love. She makes her story relatable by making us feel each of her emotions: ecstasy, grief, and eventual acceptance.
At a Glance: A literary memoir about first love, caregiving, and cancer in the 1980s. It follows a young woman navigating devotion, financial strain, intimacy, grief, and the physical demands of caring for a seriously ill partner.
Best for Readers Who Enjoy: literary memoir, caregiving stories, books about cancer, first love, coming-of-age memoirs, working-class relationships, grief and acceptance, medical memoirs