Tag: suicide

Inheriting Edith by Zoe Fishman (Literary Fiction –audio book)

Writing: 4.5/5 Characters: 5/5 Plot: 4/5
Single mother Maggie — a college graduate who drifted into house cleaning — is bequeathed a beautiful house in Sag Harbor by Liza — a previously good friend with whom she had had a falling out years before. The only catch? The house comes with an inhabitant — Liza’s 82-year old crotchety mother, complete with recent Alzheimer’s diagnosis.

Maggie and her two-year old daughter, Lucy, move in, and what follows is a beautiful, slow-moving but deeply felt novel of two women coming to terms with who they are, who they were, and what kind of closure they need before moving forward. Liza was a suicide — a best selling author who did not leave a suicide note. And so part of work both Maggie and Edith have to do is to try to understand why, what they could have done, and what it means for them going forward.

Excellent dialog — full of the clear, deescalating interactions we all wish we could do on demand. Also some wonderful supporting characters: Edith’s oldest and best friend Esther — they were Broadway dancers together way back when; Sam — single dad, philosopher and now owner of a popular toy store; and two-year old Lucy who is as charming and off-the-charts annoying as any toddler could be. Lots of reflection and the gaining of self-knowledge; lots of discussion of depression, guilt, best effort, and second chances. Really nice relationships. Brought me to tears several times.

I liked the audio book reader — her “Esther” voice was my favorite. Reminded me of my grandma 🙂

Make Me by Lee Child (Thriller)

My book club is reading “Reacher Said Nothing” a book that follows Lee Child through the process of writing a Jack Reacher novel. Since I’ve never read one of the incredibly popular Reacher novels, I decided to read the one (Make Me) on which it was based.

Not bad — very clean writing, a sort of relationship (man-style — not much verbalizing of emotion but shown in action) — and plenty of action. Kind of a slow boil plot that eventually resolved into an unexpected (for me) conclusion. It was entertaining, though not really my kind of thing.

I did enjoy the guilty pleasure of vigilante justice — in the novels the bad guys are so very, very, bad, and it feels so good when Reacher just takes care of it — no long court trials, no rights …

Stay tuned for the review of “Reacher Said Nothing” in the upcoming weeks…

The Half-Orphan’s Handbook by Joan F Smith (Young Adult)

A well-written book about a young girl going through the grief of her father’s recent suicide. Lila is 16 and has been reluctantly cajoled into attending a grief camp for the summer. This is the story of her slow journey towards healing, including a healthy amount of new friends, a budding love interest, and that irreverent teen style that helps makes the unbearable, bearable.

The author, who went through a similar experience, does an excellent job at describing the confusion of competing feelings, the different ways grief hits you at different times, and the eventual return to the three Ls: laughing, loving, and living without guilt. I really liked all the characters, and I want to emphasize that this was not at all a depressing book — there was a lot of honest reflection, observation, and fun. Plenty of racial and sexual diversity as well as discussions of addiction, suicide, and first love.

Thank you to Children’s Publishing Group and NetGalley for providing an advance copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. The book will be published on April 6th, 2021.

When I was Yours by Lizzie Page (historical fiction)

Writing: 3 Plot: 3 Characters: 2.5

I loved the beginning of this book — tight prose, humorous, great writing, and the promise of a story that spanned two world wars (as told in alternating chapter time periods). In 1914, Vivi Mudie-Coates is the young, beautiful, and conventional British woman who wants nothing more than to marry Edmund, the handsome, upper crust friend of her cousin Richard. In 1939, she is indeed married to Edmund, but is anything but happy. When the children begin to be evacuated from London, the childless couple are given Pearl, somewhat against Edmund’s wishes.

The parallel stories wander through all the standard places — nursing on the continent during the Great War, the bombing of Britain in WWII, the evacuation of London children, driving ambulances, friends and relatives killed… There is a theme of casual anti-semitism threaded throughout that becomes more personal to Vivi as the story evolves. This book has all the elements of a great story but it just didn’t work for me. The plot was dragged out, so what started as a tight beginning just went on and on without any of the depth that would make the time spent feel worthwhile. Instead, it veered into pure melodrama with increased bombing deaths, close calls, suicides, and missed opportunities for true love. Even worse (for me), I found the main character to be shallow and kind of stupid. She did not behave in a way that I found at all believable. I never warmed to her, and even towards the end — when she finally started to do the right thing — she did it in a petulant, selfish manner that I found quite off-putting.

This is possibly the first book I’ve reviewed that kept me going to the end because I wanted to know what happened, but that I really disliked. I hate to be so negative — I tend to only review books that I like because I don’t bother finishing the others but …

Thank you to Bookouture and NetGalley for providing an advance copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. The book will be published on April 16th, 2019.