Customer Reviews

Shadow Baby: A Novel

5 star:		(21)
4 star:		(15)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

What a wonderful, wonderful book! Clara winter (you'll see why she spells her last name without a capital when you read the book) is an 11-year-old girl you'll never forget. She is precocious in her wordminded-ness, yet naive and childlike in her propensity for fantasy. In Shadow Baby, Clara goes on a search for her own history--her dead twin sister, her MIA grandfather, her phantom father. This book is stunningly written, both hilariously funny and achingly sad. Truly a literary feat. Love it love it love it.

In contrast to what a reviewer above said, I'm always really GLAD when someone else starts their review with a synopsis of the plot. Everybody's perception of what happened in a novel is a little bit different -- some people see one thing as the novel's focus and others something else. It can tell you a lot about a novel to read several different descriptions of the story (unless they're all swiping their descriptions from the book jacket!). So, here's the book that *I* read when I read "Shadow Baby":

Novel about 11-year-old Clara Winter (who prefers having her last name pronounced without the capital letter -- "winter" -- which tells you quite a bit about her precocious character). When she is given a school assignment to interview an elderly person, she latches onto an old immigrant man living in a trailer, Georg. Clara's whole world is constructed of stories, so many of which she has invented herself that she can hardly remember what is true and what isn't. Through her friendship with Georg, Clara learns how to see the world in a new way -- to see everything without focusing on any one thing. And through that, she gradually begins to learn how to let go of her obsession with the past. This was a very touching novel about both a girl coming-of-age and the wisdom one can find in the strangest places -- in an illiterate old metalworker and in a mixed-up 11-year-old girl. Recommended!

I found Shadow Baby to be a very engrossing story. Right from the very beginning, the "voice" of the little girl pulled me in. I wanted to know what happened to her baby sister, what happened to her father, grandfather...what would become of her friendship with "the old man".

We find Clara winter, our narrator, a very unique 11 year old. Her thoughts and actions are really more that of a 18 year old. However for me, I didn't mind, I just accepted this and read on. Clara is a girl who is questioning life. She wants to know what happened to her twin sister who died at birth, what the real story was. She tries to get her mother to give her answers on that & other subjects, most of the time to no avail. So she develops a friendship with an older neighbor and this seems to give her a bit of an outlet and she begins making up stories about her families life, and his life.

This book is unique in that it takes you on a journey, and you're not sure where this is leading a lot of the time. You want answers, the answers Clara is seeking, and you wonder if you'll ever get them. Or if you'll ever find out why Clara is the way she is. Over-all I enjoyed the "journey", I'm still left with a few questions...but this is definitely a book I won't forget any time soon!

I'm always a little surprised that the people who offer reviews here summarize the book - the summary is already included in the amazon info. I'll just tell you that Clara winter knows what all readers know; the incredible power of words, and that stories, once imagined, cannot be unimagined. I loved the ephemeral quality of truth, as seen through Clara's eyes. Alison McGhee is a very gifted writer, and a "master of the art of possibility". I think that some readers will have a little difficulty with accepting eleven year old Clara's remarkable vocabulary, but this book is so beautifully crafted that this precocity is believable. If you are a fan of Alice Hoffman, Anna Quindlen, or Elizabeth Berg, you will be delighted with Shadow Baby. I absolutely loved it!

For anyone who runs a book club, I highly recommend this short and sweet book. It's easy for all club members to finish in a month, and it will inspire a wealth of emotions and reactions in the reader.

Clara is a bit precocious for an 11-year old, but her world view is very realistic. We see her mother Tamar only through Clara's eyes, and Clara has trouble relating to her mother. Clara relates beautifully to an old man who lives near her, and their friendship illustrates the wealth of both life lessons and practical knowledge that can be gleaned from our elders.

Enjoy this book as Clara makes friends, learns about life, unravels the mysteries of her past, and comes to understand her mother.

Shadow Baby is an enjoyable little read about a precocious girl desperate for information about her paternity. Problem is her Mom's not telling, so Clara is left to imagine the various scenarios about who her father may be and how she came into the world. Clara meets up with Georg, an elderly immigrant man and the two form an odd but touching friendship. Shadow Baby touches on the need we all have to know our personal history, good, bad or otherwise. Clara is a charming, witty, albeit odd little girl who is not easily forgotten.

I just loved this book! You can't help but love Clara, Georg, and even Tamar. The story worked at a great pace with small surprises thrown in when you least expected. One of the ways I know that a book is really great is that it plays out almost like a movie in my head, and that is the vivid manner in which Alison McGhee wrote each scene and dialogue between her characters. There was an equal mixture of funny, thoughtful, heartwarming, (and tear-jerking-is that a word? ) moments to keep a reader both entertained and enlightened. I agree with another one of the reviewers that I would love to learn the next installment of Clara's life! (sequel, sequel! )

With the logic of Christopher from Mark Haddon's _Incident of the Dog in the Night-time_, Clara winter narrates her yearning for her grandfather and sister in a stark way that makes me sympathize with her more readily than I might had she used the cute attitude that weakens other child characters and sickens my stomach. She knows her situation and doesn't spare any punches when it comes to describing loneliness.

This isn't to say she doesn't have her superstitions; she wears bungee cords in winter (which is never capitalized, for a reason she makes clear throughout the book) and dreams up imaginary lives for her absent family and Georg, the immigrant she befriends during a school project (who also plays a pivotal and touching role). But though her equipment and wordplay may at first seem trivial, they become a profound commentary on language, accepting relationships, and perception as, through a somewhat formulaic but honest and heartbreaking ending, she learns that the implications of her words apply to her own growth as well.

Clara is openly referred to as precocious and strange several times throughout the book, and I really like that. The author left her alone--she does sound similar to Chris, an autistic boy, but she is never labeled with any disorder. Too many times, I think, authors feel they have to tidy up characters' eccentricities by explaining them away as academically gifted or disabled. While it is good to gain insights about mental disorders etc., it takes courage to portray an atypical character whose eccentricities are bold, beautiful, and part of her, requiring no apology or diagnosis.

This book had me from the start. The author's use of words is a gift to the reader. I am reading it for the second time just for the enjoyment of the words. I want to be Clara. I want to have all those wonderful words inside me, waiting to get out. I am looking forward to reading the author's other books. Excellent writing. Thank you Ms McGhee.

I'm always a little surprised that the people who offer reviews here summarize the book - the summary is already included in the amazon info. I'll just tell you that Clara winter knows what all readers know; the incredible power of words, and that stories, once imagined, cannot be unimagined. I loved the ephemeral quality of truth, as seen through Clara's eyes. Alison McGhee is a very gifted writer, and a "master of the art of possibility". I think that some readers will have a little difficulty with accepting eleven year old Clara's remarkable vocabulary, but this book is so beautifully crafted that this precocity is believable. If you are a fan of Alice Hoffman, Anna Quindlen, or Elizabeth Berg, you will be delighted with Shadow Baby. I absolutely loved it!