Rating: 2 Drink more Mint Juleps before reading (åå) Pages: 464
Challenges: Summer Reading Thing, Reading Full Circle Challenge
Synopsis (from BN.com)
Paige has only a few vivid memories of her mother, who left when she was five. Now, having left her father behind in Chicago for dreams of art school and marriage to an ambitious young doctor, she finds herself with a child of her own. But her mother's absence, and shameful memories of her past, make her doubt both her maternal ability and her sense of self worth.
Review
I really like Jodi Picoult books but I struggled with this one. I had a hard time with first I cannot believe that a child who was abandoned would abandoned her own. OK she just left for a while, but when she left she didn't have any intent on coming back. Second, she seemed to have very little anger against her mother for leaving her. I just really struggled with Paige and didn't believe she would react the way that she did. Also I struggled with her as a mother leaving her child. So needless to say I struggled a lot with this book but FINALLY finished it. If you are interested in Picoult I would start with Salem Falls and skip this one!
2 comments:
I had trouble with all the cliches Piccoult used. "Better late than never," was used twice, "Necessity makes strange bedfellows," "So far so good," "a mile a minute," etc., mar the writing. Every time I read another cliche, I felt I was getting punched in the face. Good writers do not use cliches in such abundance, unless they are making fun of them. I also found it incredible that as a nursing mother, Paige would not have backed up milk in her breasts reminding her constantly of her child. Instead, she is off riding horses with her mother that she so desperately wanted to find. She abandons her child so she can find the mother who abandoned her and it doesn't make any sense. So I ended up hating this main character and finding her observations ridiculous.
June - you are right! I didn't even think about backup milk and I don't remember her discussing engourgement at all!
I really had a hard time thinking she would abandon her child too. I can see needing a break, but a 2-3 hour break!
Thanks for the comments! Are you planning on reading Picoult's new book?
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