"For years Helen Knightly has given her life to others: to her haunted mother, to her enigmatic father, to her husband and grown children. When she finally crosses a terrible boundary, her life comes rushing in at her in a way she never could have imagined.
Unfolding over the next twenty-four hours, this searing, fast-paced audiobook explores the complex ties between mothers and daughters, wives and lovers, the meaning of devotion, and the line between love and hate. It is a challenging, moving, gripping story, written with the fluidity and strength of voice that only Alice Sebold has."

Couldn't pass this up at a recent library sale. (Read by Joan Allen; unabridged; 8 CD's)

"Disturbing" is definitely the first word that comes to mind after reading this novel. I imagine some readers wouldn't be able to get past that & would give up shortly after starting, since the beginning of the book kind of socks you in the face. But as disturbing as this book is, it's very well written. The subject matter is extremely depressing -- I'm not sure that there was any part of the entire story that wasn't that way -- but yet, it seemed very real to me. Shockingly real. Though I felt the ending was a little weak, I think Sebold was very brave in her attempt to tackle this difficult subject matter.

Adding to Carlissa's CD audio bookbox!

Took this out of Carlissa's Audio CD bookbox. I'm looking forward to listening to this.

CONTROLLED RELEASE NOTES:

putting in carlissa's cd audiobook box

Taking this out of carlissa's audio bookbox. Thank you!

I am slowly coming to realize that maybe this kind of literary fiction really isn't my thing. I have a hard time looking past things like a disturbing plot and crazy characters to things like overall truths and honest emotions.

At the beginning of this novel, the main character is a caretaker of her elderly mother, who clearly had a lot of mental problems of her own and was not a very nice woman either. Unable to physically get her mother to a spot to be cleaned off after her mother has an accident, the main character promptly and suddenly smothers her mother to death.

The rest of the book is a dance around who the main character is. Seemlessly working memories into the narrative, the book manages to take a 24-hour (roughly) period and make it last a freakin long time. The main character goes off on tangents so suddenly you barely realize it's happening. They're beautiful and the stories of the past define her even more than this sudden and horrific action at the beginning of the book. But I just don't like reading books where there really aren't any characters to love. I felt sorry for EVERYBODY--her, her mother, her father, her ex-husband, her friend, her friend's son, her daughters, even her mother's neighbors. Everyone gets tangled up in this narrative, influenced by this crazy, terribleness that is her family.

The ending was inevitable but not surprising or satisfying to me. I feel like the inner journey I was supposed to be going on never reached that epiphany it was striving for and I certainly didn't come out of it learning more about myself... apart from the fact that I don't ever want to find myself in a situation like that. It's a dark subject that is written about well, but I didn't enjoy a single second of it, I'm afraid. And I like books where I can find something to enjoy--even if it's just enjoying something I've learned about myself in the end.

I've been wanting to read The Lovely Bones by the same author, but now I'm not so sure...

Putting into BigJohnLefty's Audio Bookbox. Enjoy!

Chosen from BigJohnLefty's CD-only AudioBookBox

I'm wrestling with what to say about this, because I strongly agree with both indygo88 and KateKintail. The book is disturbing and depressing, and there really aren't any characters to love.

The first thing we learn in the book is that the mother is a spiteful and self-centered woman, and the daughter has been her caretaker for many years, with no thanks. In that scenario, if you suddenly find yourself kneeling over your weak and helpless mother with a thick towel in your hand, it's not too hard to imagine your patience suddenly snapping and the towel coming down over her face. So I was prepared to view Helen sympathetically, assuming she was finally putting an end to years of bad treatment.

But it was nothing so simple. Helen's behavior immediately became erratic and impulsive. Sometimes she seemed to be trying to conceal the crime, sometimes almost to forget it. My sympathy quickly evaporated as she became more irrational. Perhaps that's the only way she could imagine acting.

Because there's no doubt that the mother was seriously mentally ill, and yet nobody, ever, thought of getting her any help. Nope, we'll just keep covering her up in blankets and towels every time she has to go out, nothing wrong here at all, folks. Who can say what growing up in that kind of household would be like, over a whole childhood?

Joan Allen is an excellent actor, but I'm not convinced that she's all that interested in performing audiobooks. The whole book came out with the same intensity. This may have been an intentional depiction of Helen's distance and flat affect. But there were some emotional peaks, especially in her memories and in other people's reactions, that could have used some vocal enhancement.

Placed in BigJohnLefty's CD-only Audio Book Box

My Aunt chose this from the audio book box.