Customer Reviews

A Good Distance

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I found this book gripping, always both believable and surprising. Sarah Willis probes the way relationships can fracture and seem to crumble-- then come together again through some magical combination of time and will. I highly recommend A Good Distance for anyone interested in fine writing AND in the ways that families make their way through the most difficult of times.

I was browsing through the bookstore after a doctor's visit recently and happened to see this book was next to one of my favorite author's books, and it sounded intriguing enough for me to buy it. It is.

It is beautifully written as it flips back and forth between two characters ~~ a daughter and her mother. Everyone thinks Rose, the mother, should be in a nursing home but Jennifer, her daughter didn't want her there. She wanted to try and rebuild her relationship with her mother before it was too late. So she takes Rose into her home against her husband and daughter's wishes. And over the course of a few months, Jennifer and Rose began a slow process of healing and letting the other know of her love. And Willis included the back history of the two starting from when Rose was a child to the present.

I love these kinds of books where the characters are both developed fully and where their histories are drawn out ... it makes me, as a reader, know the characters well and feel familiar with them. The author also explored the intricate relationship between mothers and daughters and why sometimes, it just seems too hard to get along. And why love hurts. And how love can set one free.

If you like mother/daughter relationship type books, you will love this one. It explores the dimensions of two different personalities who suddenly realized that they're very much alike too. It is also a book on life. Everyday life. It's realistic enough for you to feel that you are experiencing it. I wasn't expecting that at all though I was hoping for it! It is definitely a good read for all women.

2-2-06

I finished this book last night and got to work this morning telling anyone who'd listen how wonderful it is.
I enjoy books written from different perspectives. The reader sees how memories can be molded to fit the needs of the person doing the remembering. When Alzheimer's plays a role in those memories, there is added even another layer.
Jennifer's mother, Rose, comes to live with Jennifer, her daughter and Jennifer's husband of 3 years. Jennifer has been a disappointment to Rose and wants to make amends, seek and give forgiveness. The toll it takes on her marriage and the impact Rose's presence has on her own daughter, and how Jennifer views her responsibility as a mother is another interesting part of the story.
The book is told from first person, when Jennifer is narrating, and third person when told from Rose's perspective. We also get a piece of Rose's childhood and learn she faced similar problems as Jennifer when she was young and we know Rose when she was newly married, having babies and, later, widowed young with three young children and starting to date again.
The author brilliantly works memories into Rose's Alzheimer's-suffering mind that the reader soons learns will be addressed in later chapters.
I can't speak highly enough of this book.

Ms. Willis has further proven her talent as a first-rate wordsmith with her third novel, "A Good Distance." Anyone who has read her first two novels, "Some Things That Stay" and "The Rehearsal," will be pleased to find this entry equally engaging. Those who have not will be compelled to read everything Ms. Willis has written. Sarah Willis writes for her generation as predecessors Virginia Woolf and Dawn Powell did for theirs.

For Jennifer, a woman with a husband and teenaged daughter of her own, having her elderly mother move into her home is both a blessing and a curse. Jen, who once ran away from home--and stayed away for ten years--is determined to gain her mother's forgiveness for their estrangement. She wants more than anything to apologize to her mother for the child that she was, and wants nothing more than for her mother to apologize for the alcoholic mother that Rose turned into after her husband's death. In fact, however, forgiviness may not be forthcoming on her mother's part, due to the fact that Rose is suffering from Alzheimer's.

At times wonderfully lucid but more often than not living in the past, Rose wanders through a world where her husband is still alive, where her daughter Jennifer is still an angry, rebellious teen, where her son Peter still strives for achievement, and her youngest daughter, Betsy, sits quietly in the background. Rose wanders the corridors of her life as if it was a play, like one of the ones that her husband, Michael, once directed. She doesn't know who this woman is that keeps talking to her, asking her questions. She doesn't recognize Todd, Jennifer's husband, and often thinks her granddaughter, Jazz, is alternately her wayward daughter or her in-home nurse.

A GOOD DISTANCE is a poignant story of love and forgiveness, of family, and of learning to forgive yourself. Dealing with Rose's Alzheimer's takes its toll on everyone involved, and yet her moments of lucidity almost make the pain worse for her daughter. For Jennifer, this time together before she can allow herself to put her mother in a nursing home is a second chance at a mother-daughter relationship. For Rose, it's a time of anger and embarrassment, mixed in with love and disgust for those around her.

Sarah Willis has penned another wonderfully complicated, rich family drama, with heartfelt emotions and dialogue. A true winner.

I was hooked from page one. This book was so moving and true to life. Seeing the world through an Alzheimer patient's viewpoint was intriguing. Don't know how Miss Willis was able to make it seem so realistic. A daughter's attempt at redemption for a lost relationship w/her mother was also nicely done without a sappy tie it up in a bow ending. i highly recommend this book.

I joined this dysfunctional family from page 1, and there were times that this did not feel comfortable for me. I most enjoyed Rose's story because it was filled with so many emotions. In many ways, she was a woman ahead of her time. Michael Morgan is one of the most enchanting male characters to come along in a very long time -- so dashing & romantic. Since it seems as if he was a good father, as well, it was easy to see how Jen missed him. I found myself becoming increasingly annoyed with Jen's self-indulgent, destructive & manipulative behavior. How abour Rose & Simon? The scene where Jen is translating how Rose felt about Simon was so heartbreaking!! I guess I take a hard [pragmatic ?] view and believe that all of us need to be more mindful of the hurtful things we are capable of saying/doing. I'm not so sure that these things can be undone/unsaid. Yes, we forgive, but do we forget?? This story, for the most part, tugs at the heart. Any reader who had to place a parent in a nursing home will identify with some scenes & emotions. Remember the favorite ice cream flavor[s] of your parents!! Life is fast & short!! I see much remembrance here. Where is the forgiveness everyone mentions? Jen is guilt ridden [either get over it, admit it/own it or get therapy -- possibly all of these!!] Rose is already too sick to really remember every detail. Good book, beautifully rendered & I would recommend this to a mature audience. [Really liked The Sound of Us more -- probably because the characters are nicer & easier to relate to --not so guilt ridden & dysfunctional!!]

A Good Distance was the third book I've read by Sarah Willis (Some Things That Stay and The Sound of Us being the others). I greatly enjoyed this book and found it to be extremely well written, just as the others were, but I cannot say I loved it quite as much as the other two.

It may have been the story itself, which at times I found hard to read. Alzheimers isn't an easy topic, and I think Willis takes it on admirably here. The use of transitions between present and past work well to tell the story. I just definitely found some parts a little too real. That's not a criticism of Willis' writing. For what I appreciated in the other two books was the same here - clear, simple writing, Real, without being too flowery. Believable characters. And her writing has all those things.

If you are a fan of Sarah Willis, definitely read this book and form your own opinion. It was a good book, even if it took me a while to get through it. But if you haven't yet read any of her books, both Some Things That Stay and The Sound of Us were really excellent, and I'd recommend starting with those first.

First I have to say that I just love Sarah Willis' writing. Who wouldn't want to make up for past transgressions that carved a deep, lasting wound in another's heart? In this case, the relationship between a mother and daughter was badly scarred during the daughter's pre-teen and teenage years and, when her mother begins to descend into the darkness of Alzheimers, the daughter, now in her forties, wants to make amends to her mother and family. I would have done exactly as the daughter did, not giving up until I knew the fence was mended. Willis has a great way of developing even unfavorable characters in a way that wins you over. The story tugs at your emotions and makes you rethink unkindnesses you unleashed in your own formidable years.