women's fiction, contemporary fiction
I was not expecting to like Love Anthony as much as I did which makes it all the sweeter. I read this for one of my book clubs and, although I loved the other Lisa Genova book I've read (Still Alice) as well as two books where the protagonists were autistic (The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time and The Rosie Project), I just wasn’t excited based on the description of this novel.
This is the story of two women who both live on Nantucket—one trying to escape her recent past of losing her autistic 8-year-old son and separating from her husband, the other trying to accept life as a newly single mother of three girls after learning her husband was having an affair. Eventually, their paths cross and both of their lives are better for their connection.
I found the majority of this novel extremely compelling. I was interested in the characters and their stories and hoping the roughness in their lives would smooth out. Genova is a gifted writer who pulls you in and makes you really understand the characters. She weaves a realistic tale—somehow including both humor and sadness in just the right doses--and makes you feel like you know people with (or have your own) similar thoughts. The stories are believable and the paths seem reasonable ones for the characters to follow.
What I did not fully appreciate was the “channeling”. I felt that the story could have been told in a way that still resonated with both Beth and Olivia, providing both with satisfactory endings, without the story going all “ghost-y” on us. I certainly am a fantasy lover so I’m not quite sure why I couldn’t enjoy that aspect of this novel. I think it simply felt too real for me to be able to accept a fantasy element so late in the story. It somehow cheapened the entire novel for me. But I still enjoyed it overall—very much!
No comments:
Post a Comment