Sunday Salon... Memory Keepers Daughter

Well I finally finished "Memory Keepers Daughter".  I won't say I didn't like it.  It was heartbreaking for me.  I can understand a marriage being a difficult place to be after a tragedy.  One would think it should bring you closer together, but it most often doesn't.  Years ago there was a commercial on Television,  I believe it was for cigarettes, "you've come a long way baby"was the tag line.  Well it may be that we have come a long way, but not long enough.

Mental illness was something we've hidden away for too many years, now we don't know enough to make it better.  What happens to young people when their caregivers can no longer care for them, where do they fit in?

I think this may have been the wrong time for me to read and enjoy this book.  Too many young people in my world have gone, we still have not found a way to make them whole enough to survive, let along flourish and have meaningful lives.  Then I think, maybe they have had meaningful lives, if they have made someone, anyone have an experience that may change it for the next needy person.

Would I read this book again, probably not, too emotional for me. It's made me feel like a "flat tire" as my mother use to say, I can't seem to get up and reach for another read. But I will...

  

Sunday Salon, The Outcast

I'm somewhat confused today... thought it was Sunday, it's only Saturday.
Don't tell my kids, they'll put me on a list for a Nursing Home.

 This past week I've been reading   The Outcast, by Sadie Jones, beautifully written, heart wrenching story of a young man struggling with life.   I think the most ridiculous thing/feeling someone could have said to this young man was that "he was loved too much as a young child" is there such a thing.  Can you love your child too much. I'm so glad we've come out of that stiff parenting style.  I can't identify with Lewis, I don't think I've ever felt unloved, and what a horrible feeling that must be.

From Publishers Weekly....Set in post WWII suburban London, this superb debut novel charts the downward spiral and tortured redemption of a young man shattered by loss. The war is over, and Lewis Aldridge is getting used to having his father, Gilbert, back in the house. Things hum along splendidly until Lewis's mother drowns, casting the 10-year-old into deep isolation. Lewis is ignored by grief-stricken Gilbert, who remarries a year after the death, and Lewis's sadness festers during his adolescence until he boils over and torches a church. After serving two years in prison, Lewis returns home seeking redemption and forgiveness, only to find himself ostracized. The town's most prominent family, the Carmichaels, poses particular danger: terrifying, abusive patriarch Dicky (who is also Gilbert's boss) wants to humiliate him; beautiful 21-year-old Tamsin possesses an insidious coquettishness; and patient, innocent Kit—not quite 16 years old—confounds him with her youthful affection. Mutual distrust between Lewis and the locals grows, but Kit may be able to save Lewis. Jones's prose is fluid, and Lewis's suffering comes across as achingly real.

It's Monday What are you reading?

It's Monday again, it seems to come so quickly.  I'm just starting to feel better, after some kind of stomach bug.  Let's just say toast and tea are my diet stand bys. 

I'm still reading The Forgotten Seamstress, Liz Trenow.  I thought I'd read off my shelves, (notice the plural, shelf)  and I had further thought I should inpire myself to sew, so hence the choice of book.  WELL, I had not expected to read yet another story line of mental health and how we/they dealt with unfortunately ill individuals, not to mention women. 

I'm not done, unfortunately not feeling well curtailed my reading adventures, but, it's a seriously moving storyline... where will it end?  I'm not disappointed yet.

It took me a while to get into opening it, it's the book hangover thing from Perfect.