The Good Daughters in Q&A with Joyce Maynard

Sep 03, 2010 Laurel-Rain rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

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Hurricane season in New Hampshire brings about an unexpected aftermath in the year 1949. Nine months later, on July 4, 1950, two girls are born to two very different families living in this little community. The families feel a connection because of this event, although the two are very different and seemingly have nothing in common—except, of course, for the two "birthday sisters." The girls are Ruth Plank and Dana Dickerson.

The Planks are a farming family. Edwin and Connie already have four da Hurricane season in New Hampshire brings about an unexpected aftermath in the year 1949. Nine months later, on July 4, 1950, two girls are born to two very different families living in this little community. The families feel a connection because of this event, although the two are very different and seemingly have nothing in common—except, of course, for the two "birthday sisters." The girls are Ruth Plank and Dana Dickerson.

The Planks are a farming family. Edwin and Connie already have four daughters. Val and George Dickerson are capricious drifters—she is an artist and he is constantly searching for the pot of gold. They have one son, Ray, who is handsome and appealing to girls.

Annual get-togethers happen for awhile, mostly initiated by Connie Plank, who seems strangely obsessed with the "birthday sisters," constantly commenting to Ruth about the many admirable qualities she sees in Dana.

Ruth feels oddly out of place in her family, and when her mother looks at her, she sees disappointment in her face. For years, she feels as though her interests and talents do not "fit" into her life. She sketches compulsively, creating her vision of the world. When she is older, she wins a scholarship to art school. And always, in the back of her mind, is her strange fascination for Ray Dickerson, who kissed her once at the farm stand the Planks run every year, and which the Dickersons visit occasionally.

Dana, a realist, is certainly out of sync with her dreaming parents. Her feet are solidly on the ground and she seeks a life that honors that need. Eventually she becomes a scientist. She also discovers other tendencies that lead to an alternative lifestyle.

Throughout "The Good Daughters: A Novel," told alternately in the voices of Ruth and Dana, an invisible cloud hovers over the characters—an odd sense of something not quite right. While it was not difficult to figure out what that might be, the actual revelation was much more unexpected than I had imagined.

I loved how the author depicted their lives against the backdrop of the times, from the lull of the fifties and the rabble-rousing sixties, including a trip to Woodstock, to the economic difficulties of the decades that came after. We could almost experience the lives of each family, from the struggles of the farmers to the fragmentation of the drifter family.

It is a tale of lives moving along parallel paths, occasionally intersecting, with such a common theme connecting them that inevitably, the connections will stand out in stark relief and the unimaginable will become the truth that sets them free.

Five stars! ...more

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Jul 21, 2010 Kasa Cotugno rated it really liked it

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Joyce Maynard has a way with a story. Although the "secret" at the core of this luminescent novel is apparent from reading the liner notes, the how of that secret is not revealed until the end. Two girls are born in a rural hospital on July 4, 1950, a good date because it makes tracking their progress through the decades easy to calibrate. Ruth's farmer family has been rooted to the land for generations whereas Dana's is virtually nomadic, her self-absorbed parents moving her and her charismatic ...more

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Oct 11, 2010 Susan rated it it was amazing

I just discovered Joyce Maynard after reading Labor Day. I thought since I am middle age I had discovered all the authors I would discover in my life time. I was wrong. Joyce Maynard is a winner. I loved Labor Day and I loved, The Good Daughters even more. I have been telling everyone about this amazing author. Now, that said I will tell you about the Good Daughters. I throughly enjoyed reading about the families. The twist nearly at the end took my breath away. OMG moment!! This was a story tak ...more

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Sep 09, 2010 Judie rated it really liked it

Very good, interesting, well written book. Underlying theme of the importance of daughters. I liked it.

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Sep 18, 2010 Kathryn rated it liked it

This story is told from the alternating perspectives of two girls born on the same day in a small New England town in the middle of the twentieth century. It did not captivate me half as much as Maynard's Labor Day so read that one if you haven't already. ...more

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Sep 18, 2010 Abigail rated it really liked it · review of another edition

I have finished reading this book. This is my first book I have read on my new Kindle. I enjoyed the book. I found it to be a little predictable, but I enjoyed how the author wrote. I recommend this book.

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