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The Map of True Places
by
Brunonia Barry (Goodreads Author)
Brunonia Barry, the New York Times bestselling author of The Lace Reader, offers an emotionally compelling novel about finding your true place in the world.
Zee Finch has come a long way from a motherless childhood spent stealing boats—a talent that earned her the nickname Trouble. She's now a respected psychotherapist working with the world-famous Dr. Liz Mattei. She
...moreHardcover, 416 pages
Published
May 4th 2010
by William Morrow & Company
(first published January 1st 2010)
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I did not read Brunonia Barry's novel "The Lace Reader," although being a librarian I was familiar with the book. It is on my to-read list. Since I was so aware of Barry's early work, I was thrilled to receive a copy of "The Map of True Places" through the First Reads giveaways.
Zee Finch is the main character. Her mother died when she was a child. After her mother's death,she spent her time spent stealing boats—a talent that earned her the nickname Trouble. As an adult, she is a respected psycho...more
Zee Finch is the main character. Her mother died when she was a child. After her mother's death,she spent her time spent stealing boats—a talent that earned her the nickname Trouble. As an adult, she is a respected psycho...more
So.. what can I say. First off, the description doesn't really describe the book very well at all. Sure, all of these things happen throughout, but there are so many more things that happen. Zee is a frustratingly complex character and I found myself feeling bad for her but then at the same time wanting to smack her. I have a hard time with people who play the "I had a hard life/past/whatever so it impacts my current life" card. I hate it. I really dislike it. I had a shit alcoholic, drug addict...more
Similar to the "Lace Reader," I didn't have high hopes for this story. Which made it a pleasant surprise to finish. One of the larger appeals for me is that the book also takes place almost exclusively in Cape Ann/North Shore area of Boston. And if it weren't for my in-laws and their Cape Ann residency, the descriptions of the scenery and townships would have zero relevancy. But hey - I've been to Beverly Farms! I've seen the Miseries! I've watched The Friendship II sail.
But enough about settin...more
But enough about settin...more
I long for the day when Goodreads provides a half-star rating option; I'd like to give this novel 2.5 stars, but since I can't, I'm rounding down. Barry's second novel lacked the charm and mystery of her first, 'The Lace Reader.' I was already on the fence about the frequent use of local landmarks as points of reference in LR, and it is even more prevalent in this one. I'd be curious to speak with someone who wasn't as familiar with this area and get their take on this. Maybe it's supposed to co...more
**SPOILER WARNING--references made regarding revealing story elements.**
This book is gripping from paragraph to paragraph--masterfully written, and difficult to put down.
There are elements that hard to take--the main character Zee works closely with severely mentally ill patients then returns home to care for an aging father suffering from advanced Parkinson's. The concept of suicide is also explored repeatedly--tough to swallow at times.
This book weaves together a number of illuminating subjec...more
This book is gripping from paragraph to paragraph--masterfully written, and difficult to put down.
There are elements that hard to take--the main character Zee works closely with severely mentally ill patients then returns home to care for an aging father suffering from advanced Parkinson's. The concept of suicide is also explored repeatedly--tough to swallow at times.
This book weaves together a number of illuminating subjec...more
I picked up this book because I had read Brunonia Barry's first novel, "the Lace Reader" almost exactly a month ago and thought her writing held promise. As with that book, it was mostly the atmosphere and the setting that I liked in "The Map of True Places."
I liked the use of sailing and Salem's maritime history as practically another character in the book. Many of her characters are likable. However, I didn't seem to be able to connect with the protagonist Zee here as much as the others althou...more
I liked the use of sailing and Salem's maritime history as practically another character in the book. Many of her characters are likable. However, I didn't seem to be able to connect with the protagonist Zee here as much as the others althou...more
Mystic sea ports.
Hawthorne.
Witches.
Civil Liberties.
Honestly, what is there not to love about Salem, MA?
For Zee Finch, there’s more to add under the “not” column. A fading father, a memory of a mother gone, a harbor town that simply holds too many reminders of a less than stellar youth.
So, it is with heavy baggage and much regret that she finds herself dislodged from far away Boston and set on a rip current back to her homeland. It is the ghost of family past coupled with a much more recent case...more
Hawthorne.
Witches.
Civil Liberties.
Honestly, what is there not to love about Salem, MA?
For Zee Finch, there’s more to add under the “not” column. A fading father, a memory of a mother gone, a harbor town that simply holds too many reminders of a less than stellar youth.
So, it is with heavy baggage and much regret that she finds herself dislodged from far away Boston and set on a rip current back to her homeland. It is the ghost of family past coupled with a much more recent case...more
The Map of True Places is the story of Zee Finch, a psychotherapist whose world is shaken up when one of her patients commits suicide. Zee goes home to Salem and discovers that her father Finch’s Parkinson’s disease is much more advanced than she’d thought. Zee’s mother killed herself when Zee was twelve and now Finch’s longtime companion has moved out. Zee extends her visit in Salem to care for her ailing father. While there, Zee must confront her unresolved issues about both her mother and her...more
I ended up liking this book as much as I liked 'The Lace Reader'. While the author still deals with issue of mental illness and pschological problems, I liked that the narrator in this book was more reliable. I also thought that the characters were more realistic (and the Salem area where the story takes place is as much a character as any of the people) and I didn't miss the 'magical' coincidences that were in her first book. There are some strong coincidences here, but nothing that can't be ju...more
Not as thrilling (in my opinion) as Brunonia Barry's first novel, The Lace Reader, but I enjoyed it. Zee (short for Hepzibah) Finch is a young psychotherapist practicing in Boston. Zee is engaged to a doctor but something appears to be keeping her from going ahead with her wedding plans. Meanwhile, she is treating a troubled patient with bipolar disorder, a young mother of two who reminds Zee of her own mother Maureen. Zee's mother had been diagnosed with manic depression and committed suicide w...more
When one of Zee Finch's patients commits suicide she begins to question her entire life. So what does she do? Goes to the funeral of the patient and then goes to see her father. Her father is ailing with Parkinsons and is in much worse shape than she realized. When she asks where his partner is she is told gone. So Zee stays in Salem to help her dad and begins to unravel what is wrong in her life. The idea of the book appealed to me. I liked the description on the book jacket. All the talk of he...more
I have to start off by saying that I LOVED this author's first book, The Lace Reader. I read it just a few weeks ago, in preparation for reading this one, as for some reason I thought this was some sort of loose sequel. While there are some over-lapping characters, they are minor in both books and there isn't really any "update" on the characters from the first book.
I liked this book, but I think I would have liked it more if it had been the first one I had read. Though the plots are different,...more
I liked this book, but I think I would have liked it more if it had been the first one I had read. Though the plots are different,...more
This is another book by the author of 'Lace Reader'. Although the book takes place in the same town (Salem) and we catch glimpses of the characters that populated the Lace Reader, I found myself not enjoying this book nearly as much as Barry's first.
I've been trying to tease out the reasons for this, so here goes. First of all, there was not nearly as much supernatural/magical realism. I really loved the tastes of the not-quite-explainable that I got by reading the Lace Reader. Although there i...more
I've been trying to tease out the reasons for this, so here goes. First of all, there was not nearly as much supernatural/magical realism. I really loved the tastes of the not-quite-explainable that I got by reading the Lace Reader. Although there i...more
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it,
click here.
Hepzibah Thompson Finch (aka Zee) was into her profession of therapy for five years when it happened. Her patient committed suicide. Jumped from a
bridge into the river. Someone tried to stop her but was too late. Zee, engaged to a very upscale guy named Michael, crumbled. She was convinced that the woman didn't take her own life, she was pushed to it. She had a male friend named Adam which whom she was having an affair and who had abused her many times. Zee thinks it was his fault.
The issue haun...more
bridge into the river. Someone tried to stop her but was too late. Zee, engaged to a very upscale guy named Michael, crumbled. She was convinced that the woman didn't take her own life, she was pushed to it. She had a male friend named Adam which whom she was having an affair and who had abused her many times. Zee thinks it was his fault.
The issue haun...more
I read an ARC of this title, so I think my reading is a bit tainted because of all the errors and various other changes that might happen after it is proofed. This is the story of Zee Finch, who goes back to her hometown of Salem to care for her ailing father, who has Parkinson's. He recently broke up with his long-time partner, nicknamed Melville, who is like a second father to Zee. She's also dealing with the suicide of a patient of hers (she's a therapist) who reminded her of her mother, and...more
Brunonia Barry's second novel, "The Map of True Places," promises to be another hit. The main character, Zee, comes to Salem from her home base of Boston to visit her father. Zee is a psychologist in Boston and is dealing with the death of one of her patients. She hopes her time at home will help cure the unease she's feeling.
Zee struggles with her father's failing mental health, and her own past surrounding her mother's suicide. Similar to "The Lace Reader," this book has a great plot twist, si...more
Zee struggles with her father's failing mental health, and her own past surrounding her mother's suicide. Similar to "The Lace Reader," this book has a great plot twist, si...more
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it,
click here.
Brunonia Barry‘s The Map of True Places (out on March 22 in paperback) is set in New England — Boston and Salem with a touch of Irish charm — much like her first book The Lace Reader. Zee Finch is a psycotherapist working for the prestigious practice of Dr. Liz Mattei and with patients who have bi-polar disorder. Her patients’ symptoms remind her of her deceased mother in many ways, but Lilly Braedon, her problems, and her suicide take center stage for Zee.
“She carefully placed the bottle into t...more
“She carefully placed the bottle into t...more
I’ll say this for Brunonia Barry, she is an engaging writer that can snag the reader quickly and hold on through the very last page. And three-quarters into The Map of True Places I would have said I liked this new book better than The Lace Reader. Unfortunately, once again as in her debut novel, the ending plopped instead of popped.
Zee Finch is a young woman tormented by her past and present. She watched her mentally ill mother commit suicide in a particularly horrific manner. Now a therapist h...more
Zee Finch is a young woman tormented by her past and present. She watched her mentally ill mother commit suicide in a particularly horrific manner. Now a therapist h...more
There are some wonderful things about this novel. It's well written and lyrical in parts, and the main character is compelling. A daughter coping with a mother's difficult legacy is generally good material for storytelling. The theme, too, is an interesting one: Sooner or later everyone has to stop and reconsider the course charted by personal decisions and circumstance.
But this novel is filled to overflowing. There is so much going on, so many subplots that it feels bloated. A number of them w...more
But this novel is filled to overflowing. There is so much going on, so many subplots that it feels bloated. A number of them w...more
This book showed up on a list of "recommended for you" based on something else I had read and reviewed. I really knew nothing about the author or storyline other than I liked the title and since I was out of reading material - I decided to give it a try. My first impression was that this wasn't really go to be my type of book. Another story about an unfulfilled 30-something who goes to the beach (in this case to care for an ill father), falls in love, discovers her purpose yada, yada, yada.
But t...more
But t...more
Zee is a successful Boston psychologist, engaged to an appropriate man, but who she does not love. Her father, Finch, a Hawthorne scholar in Salem, MA -- he lives next to the House of Seven Gables -- has thrown out his partner of 20+ years, who helped to raise Zee, her father's Parkinson's is very serious. Her mother, suffering from bipolar disorder killed herself when Zee was 12. One of Zee's patients, also suffering from bipolar disorder has just commited suicide.
Zee moves back to Salem to tak...more
Zee moves back to Salem to tak...more
The Map of True Places was...interesting. It's the story of Zee, a psychotherapist who returns to Salem, the town in which she grew up, in order to care for her father, a man suffering from Parkinson's Disease. However, she is also still coping with the fact of her mother's suicide years earlier, as are her father and his lover.
So, I found Zee's relationship with her father Finch heartbreaking, since she is watching him gradually lose himself. And equally difficult is watching Melville, Finch's...more
So, I found Zee's relationship with her father Finch heartbreaking, since she is watching him gradually lose himself. And equally difficult is watching Melville, Finch's...more
This novel, a companion book to The Lace Reader by the author, is the book I finished reading today for my Third Tuesday Book Club meeting tomorrow night (January 15, 2013). Our book club picked this book because we loved The Lace Reader, and I very much enjoyed this book, even if coincidence is stretched nearly to the breaking point in the plot.
It is 2008, and thirty-two year old Zee Finch is a psychotherapist in Boston, engaged to one of Boston’s most eligible bachelors. However, she feels off...more
Zee is a professional counsellor. One of her patients, a young woman, Lilly committed suicide and Zee feels intensely guilty. She believes she should have identified the symptoms that prompted Lilly's actions. Against her mentors and fiancee's advice, she attends the funeral. Zee suspects there was more to Lilly's suicide than meets the eye although there were witnesses. Zee retreats home where she finds her father's health and home situation has deteriorated. Her father was diagnosed with Parki...more
I am lucky to be able to say that I have met Brunonia Barry on two separate occasions. She lives one town over from me and I met her when The Lace Reader came out, one of her first signings after the book had just been released. She’d just found out that the book debuted on the NYT Bestseller List and there was quite a crowd. I met her again last Thursday in Marblehead, but this time for a whole different book.
I had high expectations for this book. Brunonia Barry is a great writer, her prose sm...more
I had high expectations for this book. Brunonia Barry is a great writer, her prose sm...more
Novel set in Salem, MA about Zee Finch, a woman in her 30's who comes to her hometown from Boston, where she'd been working as a psychologist. Her father has Parkinson's disease and at his request, his longtime boyfriend Melville had kept from her how seriously ill Finch was. But now Finch has kicked Melville out of the house over some old slight and Zee is left to try to figure out how to care for him.
She also is mourning a patient of hers, a bi-polar woman named Lilly who committed suicide an...more
She also is mourning a patient of hers, a bi-polar woman named Lilly who committed suicide an...more
Being a therapist would be a difficult job for anyone, but for Zee Finch, whose patient's recent suicide eerily echoes that of her mother's, it's become haunting and nearly impossible. In Brunonia Barry's The Map of True Places, Zee attempts to unravel the deeper truths about her patient, her mother, and herself.
It's hard for me to categorize this novel: it's a mystery, it's literary fiction, it's a thriller, it's even a bit fantastical. I described the main plotline above, but there are sidelin...more
It's hard for me to categorize this novel: it's a mystery, it's literary fiction, it's a thriller, it's even a bit fantastical. I described the main plotline above, but there are sidelin...more
Once again this author wrote an unforgettable story. She is now one of my favorites to read.
While the story doesn't necessarily have that happily ever after ending and at times felt really depressing, the characters seemed so real that it didn't matter. For me, this is what a well written book is all about.
The few quibbles I had was that it seemed at the end of every sentence a character spoke, the author wrote 'she said/he said'. I don't know if it was the way the narrator was reading it or no...more
While the story doesn't necessarily have that happily ever after ending and at times felt really depressing, the characters seemed so real that it didn't matter. For me, this is what a well written book is all about.
The few quibbles I had was that it seemed at the end of every sentence a character spoke, the author wrote 'she said/he said'. I don't know if it was the way the narrator was reading it or no...more
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Born and raised in Massachusetts, Brunonia Barry studied literature and creative writing at Green Mountain College in Vermont and at the University of New Hampshire and was one of the founding members of the Portland Stage Company. While still an undergraduate at UNH, Barry spent a year living in Dublin and auditing Trinity College classes on James Joyce's Ulysses.
Barry's love of theater led to a...more
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“If you had done your calculations properly, there would be a moment when you found that the star you were looking for was exactly where it should be on the horizon. In that instant the universe made sense, and you knew no matter what else happened in the world, the stars would always tell you where you were, and when they did, you would always be able to find your way home.”
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“Nevertheless . . was a word, certainly, but much more than a word, it was a concept. "Nevertheless" was what you said when you were not going to budge, whether expressing an opinion or an intention. It was a statement, not a question, and the only word in the English language to which it was pointless to respond. If you wanted to end a conversation or an argument "nevertheless" was your word.”
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Jun 29, 2011 05:34pm