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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
17 of 18 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Likable but not lovable,
By
This review is from: Things I Want My Daughters to Know: A Novel (Hardcover)
Although I liked "Things I Want My Daughters to Know," I didn't love it. As a daughter who lost my own mother at an early age, some of the story felt too artificial to me and the pat, happy endings for all the main characters were just a tad too unrealistic for me. Where I feel the author went wrong was by commencing this book in medias res (in the middle of things), after the mother has already died. As a result, the reader never gets the opportunity to genuinely experience the bond between mother and daughters. Therefore, an emotional disconnect exists.
What Noble does extremely well, though, is develop believable characters. In each of the daughters I could see shades of myself and how I dealt with the grief of losing my own mom. Lisa, the oldest, is "too strong for her own good" and afraid to let anyone love her. Jennifer, "proud and intent on emotional independence," strangles herself in love relationships that have long run their course. Amanda, the free spirit, uses travel as a means of escaping the real world. And Hannah, the teen who loses her mother far too soon, struggles to become a woman without her maternal role model to guide her. In summation, "Things I Want My Daughters to Know" is a good book to pass a lazy afternoon, but it's not one I'd put on my list of all-time favorites.
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A book about love: between mothers and daughters, sisters, and others,
This review is from: Things I Want My Daughters to Know: A Novel (Hardcover)
As the once full-of-life Barbara Forbes is being treated for terminal cancer, she begins a journal of things that she wishes to share with her four daughters. She also writes each of her daughters an individual letter to be opened only after her death. There is Lisa, the oldest and most like her, full of life yet stubborn, too; Jennifer, married but obviously unhappy although refusing to talk to anyone about it; Amanda, the daughter who Barbara always considered her "own," as no father was around to raise her; and Hannah, Barbara's late-in-life baby, now left alone with her father, Barbara's grieving and lost second husband, Mark.
The book opens on the day of Barbara's funeral, and so the reader gets to know Barbara only through her writings. The story is told from varying perspectives in turn, including that of Mark in addition to each daughter. Initially, everyone seems to be coping as well as can be expected with Barbara's death (which was anticipated, after all) but it doesn't take long for the delicate surface to begin to give way. Each daugther must wrestle with her own demons, negotiating her own way without her beloved mother for advice and support. Eventually--and with the help of Mark, who plays a crucial role--the family is able to survive their various conflicts and emerge on the dawn side of grief. In the end, the message of this book is a simple one, if a somewhat cliched one: that love conquers all, whether it is a mother's love for her daughters, the love between sisters, or the romantic love that binds two people together forever. Overall, a worthwhile read.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Touching book!,
By
This review is from: Things I Want My Daughters to Know: A Novel (Hardcover)
This is a great book. I could not put it down. As a mother, I was moved by Barbara's need to leave something for her girls. The characters are very complicated and the author gives great insight to each of them.
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