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Reel Life: A Novel
by
Jackie Townsend (Goodreads Author)
Sisters are meant to always be there for each other, or are they? In the glare of reality, clashing views and acts of betrayal can work to form unbridgeable gaps, and the fabric of sisterly love must be delicately rewoven from whole cloth. Reel Life charts the story of redheaded sisters Betty and Jamie, who must call upon the past to forge a new and meaningful connection f...more
Paperback, 376 pages
Published
February 22nd 2012
by Ripetta Press
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Being the oldest sibling of a brother and sister, I can relate a lot to this story. I think all of us with siblings can! Especially when you have a close relationship with them as I do. Although, yes over the years as we have gotten older the relationship has changed, we are all still very close. Because of the changes that have taken place due to "growing up", it is difficult to figure out what the other person is thinking or feeling at any given time. However the one bond we always share, even...more
Reel Life, by Jackie Townsend, revolves around two sisters, Betty and Jamie who have traveled a rocky road towards finding who they are and what they mean to each other as sisters. Each chapter starts with present day, then lapses into a scenarios from their past that help explain the reasons they have made certain decisions in their lives and why they feel the way they do about each other.
Jamie lives in Thailand with her husband and fought infertility and is unable to have a child. While at the...more
Jamie lives in Thailand with her husband and fought infertility and is unable to have a child. While at the...more
From Dorothy clicking together the heels of her shiny red shoes in The Wizard of Oz, to an image of the shoemaker making the red ballet shoes dance in the final scene of The Red Shoes, movies are an integral part of Reel Life, the story of two sisters. Their childhood, teen years, and adult life are played out on a backdrop of contemporary and classic films such as Little Darlings, Blue Velvet, Vertigo, Kill Bill, and even Shrek.
Jackie Townsend, in her debut novel, has masterfully woven together...more
Jackie Townsend, in her debut novel, has masterfully woven together...more
Jackie Townsend's "Reel Life" unspools not neatly, but well. The entangled lives of two sisters, Jamie and Betty, their love lives, and their "busy" troubled mom are intertwined with moments from films that meant a lot to the sisters in the various episodes of their lives.
Townsend takes us through Jamie and Betty's childhood and teen years. They go to college, they think they fall in love. Betty marries and has children. Jamie continues to wander, wondering if she wants children at all.
The scene...more
Townsend takes us through Jamie and Betty's childhood and teen years. They go to college, they think they fall in love. Betty marries and has children. Jamie continues to wander, wondering if she wants children at all.
The scene...more
Charlene's Review:
The product of a less than ideal home, Betty and Jamie grew up learning how to NOT deal with issues. The ideal escape: a movie theater. With a mother who is depressed and self-absorbed, and a therapist father who withdraws after their marriage fails, the girls think they should have a special bond. The reality is, even without the ability to communicate, their shared lives still hold them in a fragile bond that neither one can break, no matter how hard they try. And try, they d...more
The product of a less than ideal home, Betty and Jamie grew up learning how to NOT deal with issues. The ideal escape: a movie theater. With a mother who is depressed and self-absorbed, and a therapist father who withdraws after their marriage fails, the girls think they should have a special bond. The reality is, even without the ability to communicate, their shared lives still hold them in a fragile bond that neither one can break, no matter how hard they try. And try, they d...more
In Reel Life we get an inside look at the relationship between sisters from a dysfunctional family. The play-on-words in the title is a recurring theme throughout the book. Movies play a huge part of the sisters' way of coping with life. Although the sisters believe that they are distant and cold toward each other, the story would say otherwise. I felt that Betty and Jamie were in fact very close, sharing major life experiences and understanding each other at a depth beyond words. I loved the wa...more
Set against the backdrop of Southern California and the Hollywood spin, "Reel Life: Two sisters on the verge escape to the movies" spotlights two sisters unable to really communicate or connect with each other or other family members.
To illustrate what does bind them all, movie themes brought the story to the reader, from The Wizard of Oz to The Red Shoes.
Betty and Jamie's individual points of view, their troubles and relationship woes, weave the story between the past and the present until, at...more
To illustrate what does bind them all, movie themes brought the story to the reader, from The Wizard of Oz to The Red Shoes.
Betty and Jamie's individual points of view, their troubles and relationship woes, weave the story between the past and the present until, at...more
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The concept of this novel was highly original, with each chapter titled and themed after a movie that correlates with the lives of sisters Jamie and Betty. The first half of each chapter shows their present situation, then lapses into a scene from their past. It was a little awkward towards the end when the two timelines converge, but it effectively conveyed the women’s roles in each other’s lives. Architect Jamie spends a portion of the book in Thailand with her husband Roberto, trying to recon...more
Reel Life is about a set of sisters who come from the same dysfunctional family unit. Lets be honest, if your family is not somewhat dysfunctional you do not have a real family! The sisters, Betty and Jamie, are and will continuously be butting heads. The one thing that draws them together is the movies. While some sisters are similar, these two were total opposites. Jamie is an architect who sadly is infertile. Betty on the other hand has many children and it seems at times rubs it in her siste...more
What made me really want to read this book was the whole idea of associating movies with importants events in the lives of the sisters. What made me even more excited about this book was the fact that it explored the relationship between sisters and the relationship between a mother and her daughters.
I really connected well with the characters in the book. I could especially relate to the relationship between Betty and Jamie because I have an older sister myself. I really related to the line "Si...more
I really connected well with the characters in the book. I could especially relate to the relationship between Betty and Jamie because I have an older sister myself. I really related to the line "Si...more
Having just finished reading “Reel Life” I can state that it was an interesting read. When I first started this title, I had a difficult time with it because the book’s style is not one that I typically enjoy. However, as I progressed further through “Reel Life,” I was able to get beyond the consistent past to present, past to present layout and successfully immerse myself in the story. There even came a point when I began to look forward to picking it up and reading more; this says a lot about...more
I don't know why but it took me a while to get through the book. I started and stopped reading it for about a week before I started to get into it. I'm not sure if the italicized chapters were throwing me off or if there were too many characters introduced too quickly for me to be able to follow. Once I started to get a feel for the novel I finished it in three days and really enjoyed it I would give it a higher reading if I had liked it from the start.
This book was written with a connection to movies and it was about 2 sisters trying to connect with each other while growing up. This book was very detailed and I found myself wanting less of a story in one area and more of a story in another. Overall, it was a good book and it goes along with my theory that every girl should be blessed with a sister.
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Jackie Townsend, a native of Southern California, spends a lot of her time in places not her own. As the youngest of four children, she carries with her a strong sense of family to these places, often foreign, and writes about belonging (or not belonging), loss, and love. She lives in New York with her husband. Imperfect Pairings is her second novel.
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