Helpful Score: 4
A beautiful and heartbreaking tale of a family that quietly unravels in the wake of the death of the beloved middle child, and the events that formed the ways the family members related to each other and inadvertently lead to the circumstances of young Lydia's death. I liked the way the narrative jumps back and forth in time, showing first the events and interactions that were formative for various family members, then jumping forward to show how all that manifests in the ways they act and react after Lydia's death. It never gets confusing, though. A delicately written book.
Helpful Score: 1
This is a most compelling read about lives that will definitely make you think about how you are raising your children and trying to change them and live your life through them. The whole novel is all about secrets and things that didn't turn out right for some and how this married couple put all of their hopes and dreams into their daughter, never really letting her be who she was.
In so doing, there were two other children that never felt the ability to reach their goals, or to even want to reach them. Everyone's lives centered around Lydia and, technically, everything that her mother was not able to attain in her own life.
The father also put those burdens on his daughter, as he was Oriental, thinking that people always looked down upon him because of his race. Therefore, with his daughter being half-Oriental, he was always trying to teach her to be a sociable, friendly person, to no avail.
This is a really compelling, sad look at a family that was so dysfunctional, yet not the kind of dysfunction that that term presently incurs.
In so doing, there were two other children that never felt the ability to reach their goals, or to even want to reach them. Everyone's lives centered around Lydia and, technically, everything that her mother was not able to attain in her own life.
The father also put those burdens on his daughter, as he was Oriental, thinking that people always looked down upon him because of his race. Therefore, with his daughter being half-Oriental, he was always trying to teach her to be a sociable, friendly person, to no avail.
This is a really compelling, sad look at a family that was so dysfunctional, yet not the kind of dysfunction that that term presently incurs.
Helpful Score: 1
Well-written does not equal enjoyable.
