katiehuntington's reviews
156 reviews

I wanted to like this, but there was nothing here that someone else hasn't already said in a more compelling & convincing way elsewhere.

A beautiful, solemn exploration of the mother-daughter relationship, what Adrienne Rich called the great unwritten story. The universal contained within the particular: "this is my story, and yet it is the story of many." Strout does not draw moral conclusions or provide any sense of finality. To be a writer and a daughter is to hold that knot of hurt and wonder and anger and inexpressible love, to know that it can never be fully untangled, and to try anyway.