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| Talking to the Dead, Bonnie Grove, adult fiction |
I don't know why I didn't write about this book earlier.
"Twenty-something Kate Davis can't seem to get this grieving widow thing right. She's supposed to put on a brave face and get on with her life, right? Instead she's camped out on her living room floor, unwashed, unkempt, and unable to sleep because her husband Kevin keeps talking to her. Is she losing her mind?
Kate's attempts to find the source of the voice she hears are both humourous and humiliating, as she turns first to an eclectically spiritual counselor, then a shrink with a bad toupee, an exorcist, and finally group therapy. There she meets Jack, the warmhearted, unconventional pastor of a ramshackle church, and at last the voice subsides. But when she stumbles upon a secret Kevin was keeping, Kate's fragile hold on the present threatens to implode under the weight of the past and Kevin begins to shout.
Will the voice ever stop? Kate must confront her grief and find the grace to go on in this tender, quirky first novel about embracing life." (Product description from Amazon.ca)
The opening page describes the shock, the grief, the catatonic state Kate is in. It's so engrossing, it just sucks you right in. The fear she has of going upstairs, the lying down on the living room carpet: you can feel the rough grain against your own skin as you put on her grief like an uncomfortable blanket.
As I read through the book, the story angered me so much. I did throw the book across the room twice because I was so mad. This time it wasn't for bad writing. Or for bad choices made by the heroine. But because I was so angry at the way Kate was talked to, the way she was treated. When I found out the secret that her husband kept for her, I almost tracked down Grove and yelled at her because I wanted it to be a happy book. I loved Kate so much, I didn't want her to hurt anymore.
The book is so engrossing, so mezmerising. I did not put it down. I could not put it down. Grove is such an excellent story-teller with amazing descriptions that are just right and just enough. I can feel Kate and I can feel her pain, but I wasn't bombarded with detail.
Grove better write another one.
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Posted by jlkelly on 2009-11-05 16:42:47 | Rating: | Views: 25
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