This novel charmed me completely. I felt the author took tender care of me as a reader, that she had something to say about the human condition, and tThis novel charmed me completely. I felt the author took tender care of me as a reader, that she had something to say about the human condition, and that she said it with a gentle beauty that made reading the novel a pleasure. I'm very impressed that Wagman could write such a hopeful book while never becoming sentimental.
I've made the book sound like afternoon tea rather than a novel that includes, as this one does, scenes of suicide, rape, child abuse, drug abuse, social injustice, and mental illness. There is more than one scene so graphic and startling that its only excuse might be "it really happened that way," which is possible, since the author is drawing on her own experience for some plot elements.
Even so, the traumatic scenes don't define this novel. The entire book, in both the introspective scenes and the violent, is framed by a wise presence of mind that gives each scene meaning. We see these events through the eyes of a protagonist in mid-life, a woman who is in the process of taking stock of her life after receiving news that her tumor is malignant. She is a failure by some standard measures of success, like marriage and career. But you feel throughout the novel that she is journeying toward wisdom and forgiveness.
It's very easy to write a cynical book. It's very difficult to do what Wagman has done here, to write a wise book....more
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