Suzanne
Rating:
Review
The premise of this page-turner is brilliant. A young college student, Laurel Estabrook, is out riding her bike on a rural road through some woods when she's attacked by two men. Years later she's looking through the personal pictures of Bobbie Crocker, a recently deceased old man she once helped at the homeless shelter where she works. Among his possessions, she discovers a couple of pictures that appear to be of her, on the day she was attacked. Right there the suspense starts and never lets go. Laurel feels compelled to find out just who exactly Bobbie was, and her investigation becomes increasingly urgent as the book progresses. Pragmatic observations about the reality of mental illness and homeless people are peppered throughout the story in connection with Laurel's work at the shelter. Layered on top of this are tie-ins with the characters and setting of F. Scott Fitzgerald's novel
The Great Gatsby. I was not a fan of that literary classic, but that didn't affect my enjoyment of this clever story at all. I even went back and re-read certain parts after the tremendous twist at the end of the story.
Best Line:
"If you're not schizophrenic, she knew, sometimes a forgiving memory is the only way to get by."
Kim
Rating:
Review
I'll admit I am not a fan of Mr. Bohjalian's earlier work,
Midwives, and I'm not hip to his writing style (among other things, it's apparent he likes parenthesis). I appreciated the Author's Note at the beginning, though, where he explains how he got the idea for this story. Main character Laurel Estabrook is attacked by two men while on a bike ride several years earlier, and she continues to suffer the effects of being a victim, which is probably what makes her good at her job as a social worker at a local homeless shelter. When Bobbie Crocker, a former client of the shelter's, dies, he leaves a box of old pictures and negatives, and Laurel is assigned the task of figuring out who this guy was and why he had so many interesting photos in his possession. Interwoven into Bobbie's story are
The Great Gatsby's Tom and Daisy Buchanan, and their daughter Pamela, because Bobbie may actually be Robert Buchanan, Tom and Daisy's son. Bobbie's life becomes an obsession for Laurel, which doesn't become fully evident as to why until the end of the book. And while I liked the ending, I thought the book was a little too long and recommend this novel only if you have read and liked the author's previous works.
Best Line:
"My inner child is not a Green Beret."
