Elizabeth Crook (1)Besprekingen

The Which Way Tree by Elizabeth Crook is the story of a brother, Benjamin, a sister, Samantha and a panther. The panther attacks Sam but was pulled away from the child by her mother, who ended up getting badly mauled and died from the attack. Samantha was both physically and emotionally scarred and vowed that she would kill this panther.
After also losing their father, the two orphans carry on as best as they can but the story gets really interesting when a few years later, the panther returns.

The story is narrated by teenage Ben who writes a series of very descriptive letters and sends them to a circuit judge as evidence against the villain Hanlin who is wanted for murder and robbery. Ben & Samantha end up as part of a panther hunting party with a Mexican man called Pachero, who may or may not be a bandit, and the elderly Preacher Dob and his dog, Zachariah. The villain Hanlin confronts them again as he wants money from the Mexican and revenge upon Samantha who shot off his finger in a previous scuffle.

While Ben struggles with right and wrong and tries to always do the right thing, he often loses his patience with Samantha but he is protective of her. Samantha is obsessed by her vendetta against the panther. Although she is a mulatto and Ben’s half sister, her abrasive personality dominates the hunting party. As Ben writes about his sister, “she is not a joy to look at or to be with”. I really enjoyed this adventure story set just after the Civil War in the Hill Country of Texas. The characters were diverse and had an authentic feel about them and the story was quite simply a damn good yarn.½

The Which Way Tree is an enthralling adventure set in Civil War-era Texas. This was a very fun, fast-paced story. The Which Way Tree paints a picture of harsh, stark life in the Old West that maybe stretches plausibility a bit in pursuit of a satisfying narrative. What makes this story unique is that it is an epistolary novel. The Which Way Tree is comprised of letters from our narrator Benjamin which serve as his grand jury testimony in the matter of murder and highway robbery, in the County of Bandera, in April of 1866. We look upon the events of the book with our narrator, Benjamin Shreve, guiding us through his past. This gives the novel an antiquated and folksy feel that won me over.

Benjamin tells us about how a panther mauled his 6-year-old half sister (Samantha) while his stepmother fought it long enough to save the girl but how it took her own life. The incident leaves young Sam disfigured and bent on vengeance. Six years later, she and Ben, having also lost their father to “fever,” are living miserably by themselves when the big cat returns. Their efforts to trap the beast fall short, but they find an ally in a Mexican man named Pacheco while they make a dire enemy of a Confederate soldier named Hanlin, who aims a gun at Sam in their first confrontation and loses a finger when she gets off a lucky shot. Also lucky is Hanlin’s knowledge of a dog in the vicinity that specializes in panther tracking and is owned by his uncle, Preacher Dob. After much palaver, Hanlin departs, for a time, while Dob and his old dog join the quest to track the panther, known to some as El Demonio.

The action is suspenseful and fast-paced; the narrative flows seamlessly; the dialogue often laugh-out-loud funny (“Preacher Dobb said, Vengeance belongs to the Lord, Samantha. She said, Only if he can beat me to it.”). Crook’s research is evident in the period details, rhythms of speech, and history.

Benjamin notes that Samantha’s obsession with the panther is like that of Captain Ahab’s obsession with Moby-Dick. That story is an obvious parallel to The Which Way Tree; a less obvious parallel is Geoffrey Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales. This book features a diverse cast of travelers, who join Sam and Ben on their adventure.

Sam might remind you of Mattie Ross from True Grit but she's a bit more hell-bent in her ambitions. Give this book a try. You'll grow to love both her and Ben.

Check this book out for a good yarn.

Naturally, I liked the Moby Dick structure, but this seemed verbose and the unbelievable letter-writing conceit wore on me.

Late in the morning on Monday, August 1, 1966, former Marine Charles Whitman carried an arsenal of weapons to the top of the clock tower on the University of Texas campus in Austin, took aim from the observation deck, and began shooting. By the time he was done, fifteen people lay dead and many more wounded. Elizabeth Crook’s novel, Monday, Monday, opens on that fateful day, with student Shelly Maddox leaving her math class, going outside and setting off across the plaza, where her life is forever altered when she is hit by one of Whitman’s bullets. Two other students, Wyatt Calvert and Jack Stone, who are cousins, see what is happening and do what they can to help the wounded, Shelly among them, even as bullets continue to rain down. Crook’s novel expands outward from these interactions: Wyatt cradling Shelly in his arms sheltering her from further injury, Jack being wounded as he tries to help someone else. Afterward, survivors of the shooting struggle to recover and resume lives brutally interrupted. But Shelly, single, and Wyatt, married, discover their shared experience has bound them inextricably together. It is an exclusive bond: in each other, they discover something that no one else will ever understand. The attraction is magnetic and physical, and Shelly soon finds that she is pregnant. The story that follows encompasses many lives and unspools over several decades. Shelly, Wyatt and Jack move in different directions and build separate lives, but their decisions ensure they will always remain linked. Crook’s characters don’t always behave admirably: their actions can be selfish and wilful and sometimes result in others getting hurt. Inevitably, there comes a time when secrets harboured for decades must, for the good of everyone and despite the consequences, be dragged into the light of day. The novel tells a multi-generational story filled with flawed, haunted characters who have suffered and triumphed but who ultimately come face to face with a distressing dilemma. Readers will find that Crook is a supremely empathetic writer, able to inhabit multiple points of view and do so convincingly. She is also a writer who unashamedly skirts the edges of melodrama but, for the most part, avoids tugging unduly at heartstrings. In Monday, Monday Elizabeth Crook has conjured a suspenseful and emotionally fraught story with an engaging historical backdrop that depicts in vividly dramatic terms the profound impact that random acts can have on peoples’ lives, and how the echoes of trauma reverberate through the years.

Texas War for Independence. I didn't like any of the characters and felt the whole thing at bottom was a land grab by "Anglos." At least I learned something about Texas history besides "Remember the Alamo!" The Goliad Massacre was at least as important in Texas history and presented suitably gruesomely.

A future classic of its genre. Set in post-American Civil War Texas, the obsessive search by the girl, Samantha, for the panther who had killed her mother and mauled her very badly, especially facially. A disparate group accompanies her: her older brother, Benjamin; a Mexican, possibly a horse-thief; a minister; his good-for-nothing nephew and the minister's decrepit "panther dog.". The story is told by Benjamin in a series of letters he writes to a judge as a form of deposition, ostensibly about men he found dead at a creek. The story takes off from there. Each of the characters was well-drawn; the story, though simply told was well done, and I really liked the author's use of dialect, phonetic rendering of any Spanish; and the way people might talk, shown in Benjamin's letters. Huckleberry Finn came to mind. The Which Way Tree refers to a tree at which the minister prayed that the Lord show them which way they should now go--forward after the panther, or back to home. I was thinking that in the right hands the story might make a good movie.

Another slow starting book, but ended up being a really good story. The book is actually two stories intertwined into one and very well done. I enjoy the historical lessons of New Mexico in the late 1800's and the guessing game played with the characters.

Another slow starting book, but ended up being a really good story. The book is actually two stories intertwined into one and very well done. I enjoy the historical lessons of New Mexico in the late 1800's and the guessing game played with the characters.

This will absolutely be in my top 5 books read in 2014.

Sometimes bad things happen to good people. There's no rhyme or reason. Crook weaves the lives on Shelly, Jack, Wyatt, Delia, Carlotta, Dan, and Madeline beautifully.

Taking place after the Civil war the story is told by Benjamin who witnessed a crime. He is called to testify. As he writes his testimony the reader is taken on a great journey withSam,his sister. Sam mauled by a panther what killed her mother has only one goal in life to kill the panther. Interesting format to the book as well as a great adventure story. I live in the area of the book and have seen many of the places mentioned. Made it more fun.

Set in the Wild West during the Civil War, this charming story is about a Texas homestead that is attacked by a ferocious panther. A mother is killed trying to save her young daughter who is mauled by the wild cat. And so begins a vendetta between the young girl and the panther. Although this story was a fast paced wild west adventure, the real pleasure comes from the charming voice of the narrator. The story is told in a series of letters between a young boy and a roaming circuit judge and through these letters a character gradually grows who is funny, brave, and totally devoted to his sister. Definitely a feel good book with a story that will entertain and delight.

A very nice coming of age story fashioned after "Moby Dick" , this story is set in the 1800s in Texas. Two half siblings, a preacher, and an outlaw from Mexico stalk an unusually aggressive panther. Human and natural catastrophes get in their way. It is enjoyable as an audiobook because the narrator is delightful. Obsession, honor, loyalty are just a few of the values the panther posse struggle with. Good book.

I loved this book! Author Elizabeth Crook presents some interesting characters and great storytelling through the eyes of young Benjamin Shreve, a seventeen year old orphan who is living on his own with his younger sister.

Set in the Texas hill country immediately following the war between the states, Benjamin and his sister Samantha experience a traumatizing event involving a panther. They soon learn the panther is widely known throughout the area and even has a bounty on his head. Samantha becomes obsessed with getting revenge on the panther, to the point where she disregards safety for herself and others.

Through a series of Benjamin’s letters to a circuit judge concerning an unlawful hanging, readers learn the story of Benjamin’s family and what happened when the panther crossed their path. As Benjamin writes these letters, it is evident that he is growing into an upstanding young man. His letters have a wonderful voice and give life to the other characters in the book.

I enjoyed the unlikely group of panther hunters--a Tejano cowboy, a humble preacher with a past, a panther-tracking dog named Zechariah, Benjamin and Samantha. And of course, no western is complete without a villain. Benjamin is so eloquent in describing Clarence Hanlin, an unsavory Confederate soldier who is one of the men responsible for the unlawful hanging that occurred.

This one is going on my list of favorites and I can recommend it to anyone who loves westerns, historical fiction or just wonderful storytelling, no matter what the setting.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Little Brown & Company for allowing me a copy to read and give my honest review.

Civil War era, Texas, the hill country where a panther attacks a homesteading family. The young daughter is severely injured, will wear the marks of the panther on her face, her mother killed trying to defend her daughter. Eventually Benjamin and his half sister Sam, will only have each other. Sam, vows to hunt down and kill the panther, and so the tale begins. A few others will join the group, including Zachary, a panther hunting dog.

A judge is looking into the hanging deaths of three men found on the trail. Benjamin knows exactly who killed these men, and using materials the judge has given him sets out to tell his tale. So the story is told in a series of letters to the judge. Benjamin is a wonderful story teller, his writing engaging and humorous. This could be a tale told and passed on by cowboys in the old West, sitting around a campfire. Many times their trek to capture and kill the panther stretches credibility, but it is so well told, put together like a comedy of errors. Things happen, the group encounters tough conditions, serious mishaps, but the brother, sister bond is strong despite everything. Benjamin loves to talk, and his account is thorough, he seems to believe that every detail must be noted.

Despite the harsh conditions, the friendship between the group grows in wonderful ways. I enjoyed this account of Benjamins very much. Such a humorous story, but adequately enveloping the times.
At books end we pick up fifty years or so later, and we find out what happened to this group in the intervening years. A very well done yarn of a story.

ARC from Netgalley.

HISTORICAL FICTION
Elizabeth Crook
The Which Way Tree: A Novel
Little, Brown and Company
Hardcover, 978-0-3164-3495-9, (also available as an e-book and on audio CD), 288 pgs., $26.00
February 6, 2018

Judge E. Carlton: How many times did you have contact with [Clarence Hanlin] after seeing him on the Julian?

Benjamin Shreve: It was ongoing, sir, after what my sister done to his finger. He was tracking us for two full days and a portion of another. On occasion he gave chase. There was words spoken. There was shots fired.

Fourteen-year-old Benjamin Shreve lives with his younger sister, Samantha, near Camp Verde, Texas. There are many things to be afraid of on the Texas frontier in the aftermath of the Civil War — “Indians and Sesech and bushwackers and vigilantes.” Benjamin is hunting for dinner when he stumbles upon Hanlin, wearing a Confederate uniform, picking the pockets of eight hanged men at Julian Creek. The next time Benjamin sees Hanlin, he and Samantha are trying to trap and kill a panther, the same panther that had mutilated Samantha and killed her mother several years ago, and had returned to bedevil what’s left of their farm. Hanlin is violently abusing an animal, and Samantha takes a shot at him. The ensuing altercation with Hanlin is interrupted by Mr. Pacheco, a Tejano man traveling on a fine horse with a complicated provenance. During the hullabaloo, the panther escapes, and the entire party, with disparate motivations, heads out to track it down.

The Which Way Tree: A Novel is new historical fiction from Austin’s Elizabeth Crook. It was inspired by an incident during which Crook’s son was lost in the same rough country portrayed in the novel. Search-and-rescue found her son several hours later, no worse for wear and tear, but they also found a mountain lion tracking the boy. The Which Way Tree is experience alchemized by imagination.

Crook had me from the beginning. The Which Way Tree is unlike anything I’ve read before. An epistolary novel, The Which Way Tree is comprised of letters from Benjamin which serve as his grand jury testimony in the matter of murder and highway robbery, in the County of Bandera, in April of 1866. Benjamin possesses a distinctive voice, and his testimony is often unintentionally humorous, in the way of earnest and honest children. Pathos is delivered in a matter-of-fact first-person narration by Benjamin. It’s through his observations only that we know Crook’s characters. Benjamin’s numerous digressions during his testimony serve as autobiography.

The action is suspenseful and fast-paced; the narrative flow seamless; the dialogue often laugh-out-loud funny (“Preacher Dobb said, Vengeance belongs to the Lord, Samantha. She said, Only if he can beat me to it.”); Benjamin’s developing relationship with the judge through his letters is sweetly affecting. Crook’s research is evident in the period details, rhythms of speech, and Texas history.

Benjamin notes that Samantha’s obsession with the panther is like that of Captain Ahab’s obsession with Moby-Dick. That story is an obvious parallel to The Which Way Creek; a less obvious parallel is Geoffrey Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales. A diverse cast of travelers, on a journey in the same direction but for different reasons, with different backgrounds — including a Confederate soldier, a young Anglo boy, a young mulatto girl, a reformed minister, and a Tejano who reminds me of Rhett Butler—a reforming scalawag.

The Which Way Tree is an enthralling adventure, a Texas fairy tale in the truest sense of that term—not a Disney version, but a Brothers Grimm, Old World fairy tale for the New World.

Originally published in Lone Star Literary Life.½

The Which Way Tree by Elizabeth Crook commanded my attention from the fist page. I loved the voice and the story kept my interest.

In 1866 Texas Ben is called to testify about a murder incident that occurred three years previous. The judge hopes to determine if Hanlin murdered eight Union soldier prisoners. Ben said he had come across Hanlin at the scene of the crime and that he was also at Hanlin's death.

A natural story teller, the boy's statement starts at the beginning of his life and the circuit judge, needing to move one, asks the boy to write down his testimony and mail it to him.

In a series of letters the boy relates a tale of single-minded vengeance.

Benjamin and his mulatto half-sister Sam live din poverty and squalor. Ben's mother died when he was a few years old. His father brought home a former slave to take care of the home and children; Sam was soon born.

When Ben was eight a panther attacked Sam. Sam's mother fought the cat and hacked off several of its toes. She died saving Sam's life, but the girl was left hideously scarred.

After the death of their father, the children struggled on their own. The nearby Civil War prisoner of war camp has cleared out ready game. Ben must travel far for game and one day he happened upon Hanlin pick-pocketing the bodies of dead Union prisoners.

While stalking the panther, the children later come into conflict with Hanlin. They rescue his prisoner Pacheco. Hanlin now holds a grudge against them, but in Pacheco they have found a friend.

Ben's Testament results in a series of letters, showing a fatalistic acceptance of his hard life in a hostile environment filled with danger from Secesh, Indians, and bandits. He works a job and takes care of their few livestock but Sam is idle and defiant. Her obsession with killing the deadly panther takes the children on a journey fraught with danger and filled with colorful characters who have lived ungodly lives.

Preacher Dob warns Sam that vengeance belongs to the Lord, and she replies, only if he can beat me to it. Preacher Dobs found religion and seeks to expiate his sins. The Mexican Pacheco knows all his mistakes are behind him. Ben's life is filled with loss and hardship but there is something noble and perfect about him. He is unassuming and grateful and earns the judge's esteem. And the readers. He is a marvelous creation.

Ben is a natural story teller and the judge comes to appreciate the boy's love of writing. When Ben requests more paper and ink, the judge readily provides them. When Ben complains about his worn quill pen, wishing he had a modern pen, the judge sends that as well. The judge's gifts increase, sending Ben books including Tristram Shandy.

When Ben threw ears of corn over the fence to the Union prisoners some prisoner in return sent back his treasure: a copy of Moby Dick. The novel enthralled the boy and he mentions the book twice in his Testament.

Ben's tale is inspired by Melville's novel, There is Sam's single-minded obsession with revenge on the beast called El Demonio de Dos Dedos--the Demon of Two Toes. I also noted how Pacheco face scarred by pocks of black gunpowder parallels Queequeg's Maori tattoos. I had to wonder if Ben has embellished his Testament, writing not subjective truth but transforming his tale. Isn't that what writers do? Take life and tweak it, giving it meaning and form?

An Act of God, or nature, brings Ben's tale to a nail-biting conclusion, revealing at last what the judge wanted to hear at the beginning: why Ben is convinced that Hanlin was a murderer and is deceased.

In her Acknowledgement, Crook states that her manuscript came to Robert Duvall, who played Gus McCrae in Lonesome Dove. (A marvelous movie and book!) I can imagine Crook's book as a movie. Here's hoping!

I received a free e-book from the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for a fair and unbiased review.

A gripping, horrifying beginning, but it turned into a soap opera. I was disappointed. There was way too much description of irrelevant events in the story that could easily be skipped or skimmed over. I wanted to get to the important currents and characters within the storyline. I liked it enough to want to finish it...but was disappointed in the end.

In August 1966 Charles Whitman shot and killed or wounded dozens of students, faculty and first responders from the clock tower on the University of Texas campus in Austin. This novel explores the effects of that event on the lives of three fictitious characters: Shelly, a young student who is seriously wounded, and two cousins, Wyatt and Jack, who come to the aid of Shelly and other victims.

What a wonderfully complex character-driven story. Growing up in Texas in the 60s I vividly remember the event that opens this novel. It was a reference to that event in the book publicity that caught my attention and put this on my TBR list. But the mass killing is only the plot device Crook uses to introduce these characters to one another. The novel really focuses on the relationships they build – to one another, and to other people not involved in the killings on the August day. As the story follows them through the decades we come to know their strengths, weaknesses, dreams, and fears.

I’m so glad I finally read it!

Monday...started out as a normal, everyday school day. All of a sudden, the college kids hear shots coming out of nowhere. Some hide, some lay down on the grass, and, unfortunately, die.
A boy slithers over the campus lawn to help another college student who is unconscious and looks like she's been shot. Ambulances come to the college and whisks the injured, the ones they know who will survive, away to the various hospitals in Austin, Texas.
The girl feels indebted to the person who saved her and they begin a relationship that extends over several years. But, is that basis enough to start and extend a relationship?

This is a true story of the killings of several students at the University of Texas in Austin, Texas several years ago. Whether the romantic aspect is true remains to be seen.

I enjoy reading Historical Fiction and since my son went to UT, this novel caught my eye. The read was a winner to me!!

Fiction
Elizabeth Crook
Monday, Monday: A Novel
New York: Macmillan, Sarah Crichton Books
Hardcover, 978-0374228828 (also available in e-book and paperback)
352 pages, $26.00
April 29, 2014

“I don’t want to live my whole life knowing that my fears might come true, and just hoping for them not to.”
Shelly didn’t answer for a moment before saying, “But that’s what most of us do. And if they do come true, we survive and then walk down the middle of whatever road we choose then.”

MONDAY, MONDAY, the latest novel by Austin’s Elizabeth Crook and winner of the Texas Institute of Letters’s Jesse H. Jones fiction award for 2014, is only nominally about Charles Whitman’s sniper attack from the tower on the University of Texas Austin campus in 1966; it could’ve been any horrific act of violence. This novel is actually about the butterfly effect (in the shape of a bullet), the long-term effects of violence on survivors, bonds forged during the aftermath, balancing conflicting responsibilities, atonement, and redemption.

The first seventeen pages of Monday, Monday are riveting. The juxtaposition between the innocence of the young students – daydreaming in math class, taking lecture notes in history class – and the monstrosity of what is happening outside their classrooms (told from multiple perspectives) is remarkably powerful. Shelly is one of Whitman’s victims: “[S]omething struck her, slinging one of her arms outward and spinning her toward the small hedge that bordered the grassy square. She tried to break the fall, but the side of her head struck the ground and she lay for a second, stunned....She tried to get to her knees….But her arm was coming apart. It seemed almost detached. The bone above the elbow jutted jaggedly out of the flesh, and the lower part was weirdly twisted. Blood poured from her breast. She tried lifting her hands to stop the blood, but her arm wouldn’t comply.” Wyatt and his cousin Jack rescue Shelly. Bonded by shared trauma, survivor’s guilt, and the isolation of so singular an occurrence, Shelly and Wyatt are “drawn to each other, imprinted on each other.”

The plot of Monday, Monday is original and masterfully executed. However, the pacing is uneven and tends to bog down in the second third of the book. Some of the shame and guilt-induced agonizing could’ve done with editing – a bit shorter novel would not have lost its impact. Crook peoples her story with likeable characters, ordinary people caught up in extraordinary circumstances. She is equally at home with stunning action sequences and the small comedic despairs that make up daily life.

Crook’s language and word choice are precise, her imagery skillful. “[Shelly] was like the aquifer with all those dark channels that he knew were there but wasn’t able to see.” In Alpine, “Stars salted the sky all the way to the ground.” Crook’s imagery of physical injury is almost too good and we’ll leave it at that. Instead of the stereotypical thunderstorm accompanying the climax of the novel, there’s a dust storm – perfect for west Texas.

As the chickens (or bats, as it were) come home to roost, those rifle shots are still reverberating decades later.

Originally published in Lone Star Literary Life.½

A gripping story of three college students brought together by a common tragedy. This novel follows these three students from their youth in the 1960's through adulthood. I was impressed that the author was able to maintain such an engaging story over so many stages of life. There was no point that I wanted to put this book down! The author did a wonderful job developing the characters with just enough background to help you identify with them but not overwhelm you with details of their character. It was easy to get to know them as you read the book. This is a beautifully written novel. I look forward to reading more by this author.

This novel will appeal to a wide variety of readers. I'd hesitate to call it anything other than "literary fiction".

I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher FSG and fsgbookkeeping.com.

MONDAY, MONDAY by Elizabeth Crook
I was expecting more of a tale about the Texas tower massacre rather than a tale of damaged people and their secrets and the damage those secrets caused. That said the book was interesting for about the first half then I got wearied with all the drama and more drama and more drama that involved Shelly, her lover, her husband, her daughter, her friends, etc, etc.
After finishing the book I decided it was a warning of the all mistakes people make in their lives and how those mistakes affect others far into the future.
The characters were carefully drawn. The writing was clear. The descriptions of life in Texas were interesting. The drama around the Devil’s Sinkhole was engaging and realistic. My favorite character was Dan. My least favorite was Wyatt (or maybe Madeline).
But overall, the book was just……..a book. Neither really good or really bad. So….
3 out of 5 stars

Here is a novel springing from a tragedy that has been swept into the dusty attic of history. How many remember the first mass shooting, at the Texas Tower, in 1966? I can recall scanning Life Magazine for photos and for answers. This incredible novel finds victims and heroes and bystanders and follows them for years afterwards and through the many repercussions of Charles Whitman's heinous act, now so familiar to us: murder your family at home and then go out in public to take it out on innocent strangers.

All the book's characters, from Shelly and Joe, who are shot, and Wyatt, who rescues them, are lovingly drawn and explored, as are their parents and the generation that follows. Though fiction, it seems likely that it all did happen and that there are such fine and brave, though troubled, people really living in our world. Highest recommendation, and my friends Tina and Karen, who don't like books where you hate every character, should find Monday, Monday a welcome balm from all the sad tales they've had to endure.

WHAT THIS BOOK IS REALLY ABOUT

Most of the time, I rely heavily on Amazon reader reviews and publishers' blurbs before I commit money and time to a new book. Unfortunately, sometimes neither tells the complete story. From those sources, I learned that the impetus for events in "Monday, Monday" was the UT massacre by Charles Whitman back in the 60's. I was between undergrad and graduate school at the time, and so I was the same age as many of the victims of that August 1966 shooting. I had forgotten most of the detail of what happened that day. As advertised the shooting takes center stage in the opening chapters of the book. The descriptions are excellent, very tense, gut wrenching. From that point on though, the shooting is tangential to the bulk of the novel. After reading the book, I looked at the Amazon page a bit more closely. A description there page states "...a humane treatment of a national tragedy", but my interpretation of that was very different from what I had just read. I didn't feel it was a "treatment" of a tragedy, humane or otherwise at all. So what is the book about then ? Other snippets on the page suggest it "explores the ways in which we sustain ourselves and one another when the unthinkable happens" and that it is a "story of a woman determined to make peace with herself". Rather empty words, not very specific. I then scanned reader reviews once again to see if any contained the magic word which would have told me what wass the key story line here. Didn't see it. This is not a knock on Amazon, they are only reprinting info they get from publishers. Nor is it a knock on reader reviews. Perhaps most were a bit too sensitive to the risk of revealing a spoiler.

But I don't think it is a spoiler to say that a major portion o this book is about the consequences of an adoption, and the consequences for a number of people of being kept in the dark for many years. I think it's important for potential readers to understand that going in. Now, the author has nicely complicated things a bit with a sizable cast of characters and complex relationships such that this is something a good bit more involved than your everyday adoption situation. Though the book is very well written I have a major problem with it. I would not have read it had I known so much of the story was going to revolve around the adoption. Additionally, in the last three quarters I struggled to pick this book up and read it some days, and I really questioned a lot of decisions that some of the characters made; too many seemed a tad too heroic and rather unreal.

A gripping story of three college students brought together by a common tragedy. This novel follows these three students from their youth in the 1960's through adulthood. I was impressed that the author was able to maintain such an engaging story over so many stages of life. There was no point that I wanted to put this book down! The author did a wonderful job developing the characters with just enough background to help you identify with them but not overwhelm you with details of their character. It was easy to get to know them as you read the book. This is a beautifully written novel. I look forward to reading more by this author.

This novel will appeal to a wide variety of readers. I'd hesitate to call it anything other than "literary fiction".

I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher FSG and fsgbookkeeping.com.