Most Helpful Customer Reviews
25 of 27 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
What are you doing the rest of your life?, February 5, 2008
This review is from: The Rest of Her Life (Hardcover)
What does a family do when it's tested by a child's terrible mistake? "The Rest of Her Life" makes a strong opening when eighteen-year-old Kara Churchill drives through a crosswalk on her way home from picking up her graduation gown. The family SUV strikes and kills another teenaged girl.
But this is Leigh Churchill's story, and right from the start her isolation shows. Leigh arrives home from the last day of school to find her husband, daughter and son circled in misery; and it's a closed circle.
Leigh has never had the relationship she hoped for with her independent daughter, and much of the book is devoted to Leigh's own painful childhood. Leigh and her sister Pam were raised by a self-absorbed mother who left to start her own life when Leigh was sixteen. Leigh carries the marks of that abandonment into her adult life.
In the hours and days after the accident Leigh shuts herself off from friends, co-workers, and the rest of their small Kansas town. The family copes with lawyers, court, reporters, and the mother of the dead girl.
Laura Moriarty writes beautifully and the elements of her story are all there for a great, thought-provoking read. The problem is that the entire book is from Leigh's point of view, and Leigh is not very likeable. She's lacking in joy and intimacy, and some of the dramatic scenes are "out of the blue" compared to her otherwise passive behavior. One scene that seems unsupported: when her mother visits to meet the infant Kara, Leigh berates her with an unfamiliar passion for being a bad mother.
There are other scenes that don't rise easily out of the story. Three examples: after two painful confrontations with the dead girl's mother, Leigh finds the key to defusing the woman's anger; she has an open and reconciling conversation with her only friend; and she reaches inside herself to build a bridge with her daughter. These redemptive scenes are certainly possible, but they would be more effective if we had a clearer view into Leigh's emotional journey.
The husband and son, and even Kara, are a bit lightly drawn. Kara becomes stronger as the book goes on and in the end, she shows a decisiveness and autonomy lacking in Leigh.
Overall I recommend "The Rest of Her Life" for the fine prose and the well-devised plot, while taking one star away for the limitations of its point of view.
Linda Bulger, 2008
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
24 of 26 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Motherhood Misunderstood, August 12, 2007
This review is from: The Rest of Her Life (Hardcover)
I highly recommend this book for mothers, daughters and sisters.
The Rest of Her Life is a wonderful book about the complexities of motherhood -- the impact of our mothers on our hopes and aspirations for our children. It deals with never-ending assessments of our relationships.
It is also about perseverance while balancing your needs with those around you (especially in a time of tragedy). The book jacket asks "What would I do?" but the balance of the characters and their positions make it a tough question with multiple answers.
I was drawn in and read the entire book over the weekend. The characters were engaging and real. I especially enjoyed the part where Leigh was criticizing her mother for not seeing her as individual who wanted different things from life and realized her daughter felt the same way.
Halfway through the book, Leigh felt like a friend I should comfort and support.
I enjoyed The Center of Everything. I'm glad that Amazon recommended this one because I enjoyed it more.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Illuminating and frustrating, January 18, 2008
This review is from: The Rest of Her Life (Hardcover)
Few relationships are as complex and as all-consuming as the one between mothers and daughters. Whether the bond is chilly and distant, or warm and loving, the mirror that we as females most often hold ourselves up to is that of the woman who raised us...and all too often there's that moment in a woman's life when she ruefully has to acknowledge that the words that just came out of her mouth sound exactly like those of her mother.
The intricacies of this relationship are at the heart of THE REST OF HER LIFE, a tense and completely absorbing novel by Laura Moriarty. Set against the backdrop of a single moment that will completely change a family's life forever, this is the kind of book that will keep you up and reading until the last page is turned.
Fans of Moriarty's debut, THE CENTER OF EVERYTHING, will find much to savor in her second offering. The detailed characters and gripping plot will attract new readers --- Jodi Picoult's style comes to mind --- and I was also reminded of the wonderfully drawn relationships in Judith Guest's modern classic, ORDINARY PEOPLE.
The story centers on Leigh Churchill, a schoolteacher married to a wonderful college professor and mother to two. One day she comes home from work to find that life as she has known it is forever altered: her 18-year-old daughter, Kara, has run over and killed another teenager, one of her own former students. This tragedy sends everything in their family spinning --- Leigh's difficulties with Kara, which are juxtaposed against her husband's easier relationship with their daughter; her interaction with her friends and colleagues in town; and her difficult childhood with her own mother and sister. The impact that this event has on Leigh, her family, the victim's family and the entire town reverberates across every aspect of their lives.
Moriarty's deft touch with characters is strong and sure. Both Kara and her brother, Justin, are wonderfully crafted, and she creates an unforgettable portrait of Diane, the victim's mother, and Eva, Leigh's intriguing best friend. But it is with Leigh that the author's skills really shine. Instead of taking the easy route and making Leigh warm and likable, Moriarty creates a character who is prickly at best --- the true result of a child raised in difficult circumstances. This approach is both illuminating and frustrating. Because the novel is told from Leigh's point of view, it's difficult to get an accurate sense of what other characters might be feeling, but at the same time Leigh resonates with a truth that a less emotionally challenged character would never have.
THE REST OF HER LIFE is a compelling novel that takes a steady, unforgettable look at how an instant can change a family's life irrevocably. Readers looking for a well-crafted family drama with a page-turning plot will not be disappointed with Moriarty's latest work.
--- Reviewed by Lourdes Orive
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
|
![[Start the discussion]](http://g-ecx.images-amazon.com/images/G/01/x-locale/communities/discussion_boards/start-new-discussion-sec._V192250339_.gif){kind=small}
