Although this book is highly praised and this author is very talented, I found this book a little irritating. It's a series of short stories but they are all inter connected and involve the life experience of one woman. Yes the prose and imagery are beautiful and dreamy and the story takes place in 3 continents. Physical detail is lacking however and frequently you have no idea of where she is, much less what she is wearing and how she feeds her children. To put it plainly, I didn't like this woman. Perhaps the author didn't either. Perhaps the author saw that growing up in the exciting sixties did not exactly prepare women for an independent life. It wasn't about that.

Most of the time this woman lives in a dream world and not a very interesting one unless you are a serious nature freak, belong to the LaLeche League (sic), home school your children, and think that one bed for two generations of family is healthy and natural. She grows from being an interesting, intelligent and observant child to a boring immature adult. I had such high hopes for her but then she just slides into domesticity. She thinks she is unique and living life on the edge but she is not. It is hard to imagine someone, particularly a woman, being so self absorbed and immature and to discover reality only later in life. What is reality? That people have to make a living, that her husband is lazy and selfish and that she has no holy exemption from the pressures of ordinary people including providing more than a subsistance level of living for her children. It is hard to believe she never noticed before. Perhaps she did but it never entered her dream world. Usually women pick up on these things (reality) pretty quickly.
In any event do read the book if you feel inclined. It is very well written and not without charm, particularly her childhood in Brazil and Canada.