This book had some serious stylistic issues that really drew me out of the narrative. The story follows four women -- three generations of a family, plus the housekeeper -- and each chapter is written in first person by each of these women. Which gets a little hairy for the reader, if it's not done perfectly. Of course, there's a heading at the beginning of each chapter that denotes which character is speaking, but all of them have VERY similar patterns of speech (something I can forgive) so if you're not paying attention (and I don't generally read chapter titles, because I want the story!) you get two pages in and are like, "Who the frick is this person?" And then you have to go back and realize that character X isn't even IN the chapter, and it's character Z, and then it makes sense.
:-)
Also, the front end of the story is filled with the main character's backstory. Like, very little happens because of the backstory. Character X starts to do something, but PAUSE....BACKSTORY DUMP! And a good portion of it either comes out later in the story or you'd probably be able to figure out yourself. One other thing -- at the beginning, the Main Character is the Only Thing Important to Everyone. They're all consumed with the main character's BACKSTORY and their interpretations of it and you know what? I'd much rather get to know them, on their own. Because the main character was the weakest link.
I'm glad I stuck with it, though. The story finally hit its pace, I was interested, I was touched. Overall a good book, even if the execution was off. I will be reading more of her work.
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