Any Bitter Thing [Hardcover]

Monica Wood (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 19, 2005

Richard Russo has celebrated Monica Wood's fiction as "thoroughly captivatingwarm and wise and beautifully written," and Andre Dubus III praised it as "luminous and gracefulentertaining yet transcendent." Any Bitter Thing, Wood's brilliant new novel, is her breakout book, a timely, gripping, and compassionate tale of family, faith, and deeply hidden truths. One of its greatest strengths is its continuous ability to defy expectations. It's not what you think. It is worse. Lizzy Mitchell was raised from the age of two by her uncle, a Catholic priest. When she was nine, he was falsely accused of improprieties with her and dismissed from his church, and she was sent away to boarding school. Now thirty years old and in a failing marriage, she is nearly killed in a traffic accident. What she discovers when she sets out to find the truths surrounding the accidentand about the accusations that led to her uncle's deathdoes more than change her life. With deft insight into the snares of the human heart, Monica Wood has written an intimate and emotionally expansive novel full of understanding and hope.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

A near-fatal accident in the dark of night—30-year-old Lizzy is struck in a hit-and-run—sets in motion a complicated, surprising story of love, loss and sacrifice. When Lizzy was two, her parents were killed in a plane crash, and she was sent to live with her beloved Uncle Mike, a Catholic priest. In prose as fresh and lovely as a Maine summer evening, Lizzy tells of seven halcyon years with her uncle. But when a bitter housekeeper falsely accuses Mike of sexually abusing Lizzy, her cozy world is shattered. Sent to live with relatives, Lizzy is told that Mike succumbed to the weak family heart and died. So how has he visited her in her hospital room after the hit-and-run? This, as well as the mystery of why Father Mike meekly accepted the accusations leveled against him, begins to come clear when Lizzy's accident and rehabilitation dredge up questions of another tragic event, long hidden. Following the structure of the Liturgy of the Hours from Invitatory to Matins, Wood (My Only Story) employs a sophisticated, layered architecture, circling from present to past to reveal shocking truths. Interspersed with Lizzy's first-person narration are sections told from Uncle Mike's third-person perspective, which provide mesmerizing insight into what is known and what is remembered. Wood's story unassumingly builds in power, right up to its moving final page.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

The victim of a hit-and-run accident, Lizzy Mitchell is left by the driver in the middle of the median, hurt and adrift. Later Lizzie comes to see the accident as indicative of her life up to that point. Raised by her uncle Mike, a Maine priest, Lizzy grows up surrounded by his devotion to ministry. But at age nine, her comfortable world crumbles when her uncle is accused of molestation. Lizzy, now a high-school counselor, is still trying to make sense of what happened to her uncle. Wood's characters, similar to those in Mary Lawson's Crow Lake (2002), show refreshing depth and complexity as they each grapple with the irrefutable power of the past. This emotional story is filled with crisp, rich details that linger in the memory much like the Moxie soda that Lizzy recalls from her Maine summers. Wood's stirring domestic drama is full of surprises as it explores the weighty themes of religion, perceived innocence, and the corrosive quality of best intentions. Misha Stone
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 384 pages
• Publisher: Chronicle Books (May 19, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0811846040
• ISBN-13: 978-0811846042
• Product Dimensions: 8.6 x 5.6 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (49 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,045,474 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

33 of 34 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Brilliant, magnificent, Monica Wood's masterpiece!, June 17, 2005

By 

Lori A. Oliveira (Chicopee, MA United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Any Bitter Thing (Hardcover)

I'm amazed that there are so few reviews here on Amazon thus far...and can only imagine that once this book makes itself known the enthusiastic reviews will come pouring in!!!! I agree wholeheartedly with the reviewer from Western Maine (which just happens to be where I read this marvelous work of art while vacationing recently!) when she states that ". . . Any Bitter Thing is a tribute to the nuances and possibilities of the English language...". Monica Wood's writing is simply exquisite, there is no other way to describe her superb skill and talent with words!!! Beautifully written and thoroughly engrossing, I savored each sentence. This is truly a remarkable book and I would love to see it get the attention and recognition it deserves! Bravo Monica Wood!

23 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars WOW!, February 1, 2006

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Patricia Kay "author and avid reader" (Houston, TX United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Any Bitter Thing (Hardcover)

ANY BITTER THING is one of the best books I've ever read. It's a beautifully written, heartbreaking story of love and loss, one that stays in your mind for a long time. From the first page, it grabs you by the throat and never lets go. Others have summarized the story, so I won't. I'll just say that Monica Wood is an immensely talented writer and I hope to see many more of her books in the future. Bravo, Ms. Wood! HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Very good, March 7, 2006

By 

Erin Brooks "Erin Brooks" (London) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Any Bitter Thing (Hardcover)

Following her parents' death, 2-year old Lizzie goes to live with her uncle, a young priest. Until she is taken away from him age 9 on child abuse accusations, Lizzie has the perfect childhood where she admires and idealises Father Mike. Age 9, things go horribly wrong, and for reasons no one can understand, Father Mike leaves Lizzie to go to live with her much disliked and distant aunt, who sends her to boarding school.

Fast forward 20 years, and here is Lizzie who coming out of a hit and run, has a vision of Father Mike at her side while in hospital. While her accident and vision threaten to destroy her already shaky marriage and career, Lizzie holds on to her beliefs and persists into finding out what her vision was all about. We follow Lizzie as she remembers her idyllic childhood, and tries to figure out how things went so wrong.

This is a very good book, with endearing characters, though Father Mike is incredibly hard to understand and I think Wood should have been less forgiving to him - which would have been more realistic. While the book is very well written, some of the characters' actions were difficult to understand (which is what makes the book interesting, I guess!). Great story of love, loss, redemption, forgiveness, relationships. Recommended.