One for Sorrow, Two for Joy [Kindle Edition]

Elise Juska (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Claire Gallagher planned to complete a Ph.D. in Linguistics, but instead married an entomologist and moved to the deep woods of New Hampshire, where he had been offered a job. As it turned out, life with the Bug Man was one of quiet desperation. Claire found work doing E-Z crossword puzzles, not exactly the linguistic involvement she had imagined.

One morning, about two years into the marriage, she walks into his garage-cum-office and announces that she is leaving, perhaps just for a while, but she really has to go. "But", he says, pushing his glasses back on. "But, ah, where would you go?" Exactly the sort of response Claire envisioned from this rational man. And there is that "ah," which can drive a person mad.

Claire leaves for Ireland to visit her younger sister, Noelle, a barmaid in her fiancé's family pub. The relationship between the sisters is complicated by the fact that they are seven years apart, as different as two people can be, and have very different opinions of their deceased mother, Deirdre. Their father, Gene, is a bit of a shadow figure, never really coming into being in the novel, because Deirdre and Noelle took up all the oxygen in any room they were in. Deirdre was an alcoholic, perennially in her sickbed, dismissive of anything Claire accomplished and hanging on Noelle's every word. Claire was not sorry to leave her family behind, even for the Bug Man and New Hampshire.

When she arrives in Ireland, once again the light shines only on Noelle, who is about to marry Paul. While there, Claire discovers everything she needs to know to get on with her life: the true meaning of family, loyalty and the redemption of forgiveness.

An added attraction of this well-written novel is Juska's wordplay. She sends Claire musing about what words might mean:

i.e., Flake:
Airhead
Frosted cereal
Erode
Forget

There are several word-strings that are indicative of where Claire's thoughts are taking her. She, who is the linguist, has to find a language for who she is, what she thinks and what's next. --Valerie Ryan

From Publishers Weekly

After putting grad school on hold and following her entymologist husband Bob to his professorship in New Hampshire, linguist Claire Gallagher decides to end her marriage. She goes to stay with her gregarious younger sister Noelle in Ireland, where Noelle has been living and where their mother, Deirdre, was born. Noelle takes after their dramatic, stubborn, larger-than-life, Irish-born mother Deirdre, a sufferer of Lupus whose lust for life and love of all things Irish have been taken up by favorite Noelle, who soon reveals that she and boyfriend Paul are getting married in a week. Claire, who makes crosswords for a living, enters a period of stock-taking in which she must measure herself against Deirdre, Claire and her previous selves in order to move forward. Neither the resentful, bookish Claire or the brassy Noelle is particularly likeable, but Juska (Getting Over Jack Wagner) makes the stakes clear, and writes forthrightly enough to keep readers interested in their fates.
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Product Details

• Format: Kindle Edition
• File Size: 400 KB
• Print Length: 292 pages
• Page Numbers Source ISBN: 1416516921
• Publisher: Pocket Books; Original edition (June 5, 2007)
• Sold by: Simon and Schuster Digital Sales Inc
• Language: English
• ASIN: B000RH0ETI
• Text-to-Speech: Enabled
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #634,002 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars One of my favorite contemporary writers, June 11, 2009

By 

Janna "vicious_lagomorph" (New York, NY) - See all my reviews

This review is from: One for Sorrow, Two for Joy (Paperback)

If you don't already know about Elise Juska, I urge you to get familiar with her books! If you like Ireland, this is a good book with which to start. In One for Sorrow, Two for Joy, we learn about Claire who is in an unhappy marriage and out of character takes her sister Noelle up on her offer to visit her in Ireland - immediately. Claire does everything right and Noelle is the screw up - but is that necessarily so?

I was hesitant to read this book because I love Elise Juska for her tender portrayals of both inhibited and spirited characters (the latter of whom aren't just plopped in because there's a need for shock value and juiciness) and the backdrops of college juxtaposed with the suburbs. I was concerned that moving the action to Ireland as the blurb described it was a departure that would take away from the characters and their stories that I loved. But in the end, this wasn't an advertisement for Ireland and Juska proved once again why she is a cut above other women writing popular novels today and she doesn't fit neatly into the genre of the week.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars " THIS ONE IS FOR JOY ", August 11, 2007

By 

miss demeaner "BOOK SMARTS" (philly , pa. usa) - See all my reviews

This review is from: One for Sorrow, Two for Joy (Paperback)

my first book by Ms. Juska and was really pleasantly surprised . I used some of the reviews on here to make up my mind and then purchased it and am happy to be saying I have ordered via Amazon " The Hazards Of Sleeping Alone ", as that seems to fit my likes more then the " The Getting Over Jack Wagner " genre type soap opera " 80's " stuff. I supppose it's because I never watch them and haven't a clue who Jack Wagner is ???

Here's hoping when Ms. Juska's next book arrives I enjoy it as much as this first venture . I too love the idea of the origin of words . also the lite travelogue feel of the old Sod , the superstitions of Ireland , as my family came from Sligo. The palm each Irishman knows of having in their home from one year to the next . rosary beads round the bedpost : ) etc. By the way, the Magpie tale well, that worked in Ireland but, most people who came from the Isle were hard pressed to find one in the asphalt jungles of America ...sooo, now when we see the unusual event of a lone pigeon sitting on or by our windows or property and staying....bad sign . Ergo, One Is For Sorrow .we just changed from magpie to pigeon : )
Of course I too enjoyed the entire storyline and the beginings of tying up of old family wounds & estrangements which happens in many families sooner or later . usually after a death .

cruciverbalist ...aaahhh, now there's a word to defy & mystify your friends with : )

3.0 out of 5 stars One for Sorrow, Two for Joy, December 22, 2011

By 

luvinliving (Colorado) - See all my reviews

This review is from: One for Sorrow, Two for Joy (Paperback)

The linguistics were exquisite and often witty, the content sophisticated, the character development very good. Good insights and expressions. But. I didn't really like it. One reader said it was blah and that's how it came across--proving that the parts do not equal the sum. Basically a blah and depressing-type (not really depressing) book with a negative outlook and uninspired message. The book was as dreary as the main character's marriage and the rainy Ireland landscape--this time proving, I suppose, that you can't write about drab experiences and expect to have a satisfying book. The one set of interactions I continually appreciated was with the Dad, who was thoughtful, kind and loving. The sister also had her moments.