Harmony [Paperback]

Joanna Goodman (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 7, 2007

New mom Anne Mahroum is blessed with a loving husband, a comfortable life, and a brand-new baby. But she isn't entirely happy. For one thing, she's having trouble adjusting to the fact that her son, Evan, was born "imperfect," with club feet. Filled with shame and feeling like a terrible mother, Anne begins to obsess about her own mother, who mysteriously whisked Anne away from her birthplace when she was a young girl-and still refuses to say why. Longing to meet her father and family, Anne determines to unearth the truth about her past. But she never suspects that the truth may be more than she really wants to know.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Anne Mahroum, the protagonist of Goodman's latest (after You Made Me Love You), has a luxurious home in northern Toronto, an art business and a good husband in Elie, a Lebanese man with a penchant for numismatics. Her six-month-old son, Evan, was born with severe bilateral club feet. Anne loves her Evan, but yearns for him to be normal and decides on corrective surgery. As Anne copes with complicated feelings about her child, she wonders why her mother, Jean, uprooted them from Harmony, B.C., when she was five years old, severing ties with the rest of the family. Anne vows to locate her father and introduce him to Evan after the operation, when she can present her perfect son and their normal life. Goodman's solid writing is permeated with commentary on the societal pressures to have it all, yet the book remains mired in Anne's thoughts as the reader waits for some form of transformation to happen. (Aug.)
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About the Author

Joanna Goodman is the author of the acclaimed You Made Me Love You and Belle of the Bayou. Her stories have appeared in such publications as Fiddlehead, Ottawa Citizen, Event, and New Quarterly, and the anthology A Room at the Heart of Things. She lives in Toronto with her husband and daughter. Author website: joanna-goodman.com.

Product Details

• Paperback: 368 pages
• Publisher: NAL Trade (August 7, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0451221338
• ISBN-13: 978-0451221339
• Product Dimensions: 7.9 x 5.3 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,022,244 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3.0 out of 5 stars Boring, September 27, 2008

By 

Alyssa Szerlip (So Cal) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Harmony (Paperback)

I have read another of Joanna Goodman's books and I really enjoyed it, so I purchased Harmony. This book was slow and boring. I never really felt sad for Anne or her baby Evan. Too much was made out of nothing and the story was lack feeling or emotion of any kind. It dragged and never had the substance it should have dealing with very important facts. I think Ms. Goodman is a talented writer just not with this one. Read "You made me love you" a much better choice.

5.0 out of 5 stars Family life--front and center, September 6, 2007

By 

Armchair Interviews (Minneapolis, MN) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Harmony (Paperback)

Anne Mahroum has it all. She's a successful artist who becomes increasingly more successful as the novel Harmony progresses. She has a handsome, wealthy husband, Elie, whose family fortune allows him to dabble in coins. She's beautiful with a flirtatious nature. She has a healthy baby, Evan. So what could author Joanna Goodman do with such a wonderful character?

Well, Anne has a secret. Baby Evan was born with severely clubbed feet. And while Anne knows in her mind that it could be so much worse (like cancer or a heart defect), she is embarrassed that her son is not perfect. Anne feels as if she's failed, that she's a bad mother. Somehow, it's all her fault and maybe her mother's fault for running away from her father.

And Evan's arrival has caused her to want to reconnect with her father, a man she has neither seen nor heard from in more than thirty years. Her mother drops hints at a horrible, terrible secret left behind, but cannot bring herself to face Anne and the questions she's beginning to pose. Anne feels that if she can reach out to her father, somehow all the failed feelings she is having will dissipate. Meeting her father will also erase the feelings that her marriage is on the rocks and the need to have an affair will all be behind her.

Her mother's secret is much more shocking than Anne's. When Anne learns to true details of why her mother ran away and why she is acting so strange now, Anne begins to look at her life, Elie, Evan, and her mother through different eyes.

Harmony is eloquently written and a beautiful story. The point of view, third person present tense, is jarring at first, but I was easily captivated by page ten. Harmony is also a story about guilt, betrayal, and reaching the point where a person is about to embark upon stupid journeys--there are multiple sub-plots with the theme of journeys--that will not change lives nor ease consciousness.

Armchair Interviews says: A 5-star work of outstanding fiction about families.