false 4598396 1 Ana Lewis is trapped by her own expectations. Her intense relationship with fellow student Alex begins to crack beyond repair when she falls pregnant‚ and his subsequent withdrawal‚ emotionally and sexually are hard for Ana to bear. Eventually‚ following the birth of Pip and then Davie‚ Alex leaves Ana to a life of question and blame. Locked in her room for much of the time she woefully neglects her children‚ preferring instead to replay scenes from her life over and over‚ fighting the urge to blink for fear it should dissipate the memories. Told within the context of two black boxes‚ one Ana′s and one Pip′s‚ the story reveals the key factors that have contributed to this catastrophic breakdown of life. In Black Box 01 we meet Ana as she begins to deconstruct her life. She rails against Alex and his inability to love her‚ or to put her ahead of his domineering mother. Black Box 02 is Pip′s diary which details in a schoolgirl terms the neglect that both Pip and Davie have suffered. Pip talks of her mother′s deterioration‚ lack of cleanliness and of her mother′s obsessions. Pip and Davie communicate through finger sign language‚ as their mother demands silence. Davie retreats into his own world‚ permanently soiled and communicating only by sign‚ while Pip‚ fat and desperate‚ sneaks out of the house at night to have sex with a boy who hates her. Pip and Davie exist in parallel‚ with only Ana′s bedroom door separating her from them. She does not want to see them. They are the present and Ana chooses to live in a past‚ continually raking over the ashes of a relationship that was never really hers. Accomplished and affecting‚ Caroline Smailes weaves together a catastrophic tale of mismatched lives. 4648072 1 9 2008 Black Boxes total:4|5:2|3:2| 4 16 13 3 5 0 false false Wed Feb 04 07:36:14 -0800 2009 Wed Feb 04 07:36:22 -0800 2009
When her lover Alex leaves her, Ana begins to fall into a spiral of depression that consumes her from the inside out. Avoiding the world around her, she instead cocoons herself inside of her room, ignoring the world outside of her bedrooms fo...more...]]> 5 0 false false Fri Jan 30 09:56:27 -0800 2009 Fri Jan 30 09:56:36 -0800 2009
Black boxes is compelling reading.



I expect readers who are not familiar with Caroline's writing will think tha...more...]]> 3 0 false false Tue Dec 02 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Thu Nov 20 04:12:25 -0800 2008 Tue Dec 02 12:48:57 -0800 2008
I have struggled with depression, off and on, for about 13 years. There were times I found this book impossible to read, because it reminded me of my own life in many ways.

This is a realistic, at times bitterly harsh, story...more...]]> 0 0 false false Fri Aug 28 20:58:33 -0700 2009 Fri Aug 28 20:58:33 -0700 2009 0 0 false false Sun Aug 16 17:36:25 -0700 2009 Sun Aug 16 17:36:25 -0700 2009 0 0 false false Wed Aug 05 08:40:26 -0700 2009 Sun Aug 23 18:21:08 -0700 2009 0 0 false false Thu Jun 04 14:58:51 -0700 2009 Thu Jun 04 14:58:51 -0700 2009 0 0 false false Thu Jun 04 13:13:17 -0700 2009 Thu Jun 04 13:13:20 -0700 2009 0 0 false false Sat May 09 14:31:50 -0700 2009 Sat May 09 14:31:50 -0700 2009 0 0 false false Wed Apr 08 16:26:10 -0700 2009 Wed May 06 03:48:16 -0700 2009 3 0 false false Fri Mar 20 11:23:20 -0700 2009 Fri Mar 20 11:23:20 -0700 2009 0 0 false false Wed Feb 11 14:46:19 -0800 2009 Wed Feb 11 14:46:19 -0800 2009 0 0 false false Fri Dec 19 12:51:42 -0800 2008 Fri Dec 19 12:51:53 -0800 2008 http://www.goodreads.com/book_link/follow/8?book_id=4598396