When my mother visited me in May, she gave me three book suggestions. They were books that her book group had read that she thought I would like. I am not now, nor have I ever been in a book group, so I appreciate the vicarious experience of reading a book that is worthy of a discussion and that my mother enjoyed. This is the last of the bunch, and while I think there are substantial flaws in the book, I have been thinking about it ever since I finished it.
One reason it has stuck with me is the topic itself. It is two adult daughters (one of them has college-aged children of her own) who lose their father--the parent who was warm and loving to them and who they are both intensely (and differently) attached. They each make him a promise as it relates to their mother, and the rest of the book is about what unfolds as they try to keep their promises.
The mother is portrayed as being unable to love her children, and one of the things that is revealed is why that might have happened. The father brought their mother home with him from World War II, but the daughters don't know much about what happened there, and we find out. It is a good depiction of what trauma can do to a person, how that damage can continue to affect those around you, and go on to shape the lives of your children. It is another layer of the war that is so often not well explored. My quarrel with this book is that the ending is so improbable--yet one does read of true stories where this happens, so maybe not improbable after all. the daughters themselves are opposites who gradually move closer to each other, both emotionally and temperamentally, and that too seems a bit contrived--although again, the truth is that dramatic revelations do change people, sometimes in dramatic ways. Just not frequently. So I recommend this book, and it is well constructed, but I am not sure that I recommend the author--I will wait until I read another book by her to decide that.
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