Jeannie Hudson's Blog: Bookmarks - Posts Tagged "family"

In her engrossing novel THE SISTERS,Nancy
Jensen has masterfully crafted a story where nearly a century of parental dysfunction and secrets is defeated by the courage and wisdom of future daughters and granddaughters. The story begins with tragedy that spawns consequences that warp the minds and lives of four generations of American women. Jensen's insight into subterranean family interactions is nothing short of stunning. Her grasp of the psychology among siblings taps the depth of human nature.Her characterizations are accurate and intriguing. Though I sometimes wanted to shout at these women to stop being so stupid, I empathized with their spiraling habit of repeating mistakes. Jensen intimately understands the internal landscapes within families. She mines the tender, confounded bonds of
siblings, and the childhood pain inflicted by clueless, unfeeling parents
who unwittingly consign their offspring to emotional wastelands that breed ever
greater dysfunction over time. Jensen
weaves all the convergent threads into a
viable and rewarding denouement,leaving the reader deeply satisfied. Kudos to
Nancy Jensen for a lovely, triumphant
novel. I give THE SISTERS five stars.

I found STILL LIFE WITH BREAD CRUMBS by
Anna Quindlen quite delightful. Rebecca
Winter is at a crossroads. A photographer, she enjoyed great success in her day, mostly from her photo bearing the same name as the novel. But she has enjoyed no recent coups in the photography marketplace, hence her bank balance has been steadily losing ground to all her financial responsibilities. Having divorced her arrogant English husband, she no longer has real ties to Manhattan where she's lived most of her life. She decides to sublet her beloved New York apartment and relocate
to a cottage in the middle of nowhere.
There she deals with various eccentric
new friends, hikes to the best shape she's ever been in, is adopted by a dog,
falls in love with a man with as many
issues as herself, stumbles onto a new
photography project while hiking that
takes New York by storm. During days of
solitude, she gains new perspective on
life and what she wants from it. STILL
LIFE WITH BREAD CRUMBS is heartfelt and
very moving account of a woman falling in
love and discovering a life more engaging
and successful than anything she could've
imagined, though the success isn't remotely the same as what she sought when
she was young. An extraordinary novel by
a masterful storyteller with great insight into people's foibles. I give it
FIVE stars.