Ginnah Howard

This was a good book, not so much short stories as chapters, which shift from one thread to the other and occasionally jump into the perspective of a character besides the two main characters, Carla and Del. The story follows the lives of these two women, who eventually become neighbors and friends. Their childhoods were unpleasant, and in trying to escape the abuse and dysfunction of their parents' households, Carla and Del recreate the abuse and dysfunctionality they are used to. Woven into this story is the growing disillusionment and volatility that have been festering in US society for generations, as Carla's and Del's children struggle, for the most part unsuccessfully, to find better ways to live.

As depressing as this book's portrayal of moden families is, it captures quite well the sort of family I grew up in, and that I have encountered in many other real-life families. While Howard doesn't really address the problem of figuring out whose fault it is or where & why this cancerous pattern started, she does a good job of showing how it works. There are other themes as well in this novel, and if it survives long enough I could see this book becoming a classic in another generation or two. It is well written and provides a great vehicle for examining modern society and our past.

(I won my copy of this book through a Goodreads First Reads giveaway.)… (mehr)

This is a story of the pain and despair of drug addiction. This is the story of a mother's worst nightmare: caught between the love for your child and the knowledge that you cannot fix them.

Meet Del, a middle-aged widow, and her grown son Mark. Mark is an addict. Del wants nothing more than to save her son. The odds are against them both. Suicide, mental illness and family dysfunction are all an important part of this story that takes you into the depths of a family's anguish.

There can be no doubt that author Ginnah Howard has personally experienced the journey described in this novel. No one could possibly write this painful and poignant tale without living it first. Her sparse, yet somehow still lyrical style draw you into her world, into her characters, until you find yourself a de facto member of this dysfunctional and desperate family.

There is a price to being drawn into a tale such as this. It leaves the reader with the emptiness, no --- make that the hollowness, that comes from living with continually dashed hope. Eventually, only numbness remains.

Yet if you've ever wondered what it's like to be a parent of an addict, this novel is the closest you'll ever want to come to finding out. Despair? It abounds in this novel, but so does understanding and the depths of a mother's love.

Do I recommend the novel? That depends. If you have the fortitude to delve into dark subject matter out of a genuine desire to understand, then yes. Otherwise, you'd best skip it.… (mehr)