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Jennifer
Rating:
Review
This is the first novel for Elisabeth Robinson, written entirely in letter form. The main character, Olivia writes every letter except for one. She writes to her ex-boyfriend Michael, her sister Maddie, who is going through treatment for leukemia, her Mom and Dad, various people in her movie producing life, the doctors that are treating Maddie, and her brothers. It is a very interesting way of relating this story, and surprisingly to me, very effective. A lot of this story is based on the author's life, including having a sister that lost her life to cancer. Her sister, and Olivia's sister Maddie both had a huge amount of faith and hope that seemed to rub off on Olivia, and Elisabeth, who tends to self-admittedly have less positive views on life and the struggle of dealing with sickness, and eventually, death. It will definitely make one think about hope in the face of adversity. Bravo, Elisabeth, I look forward to reading your second novel.
Best Line:
This is from the only letter in the book that wasn't written by Olivia. It was written by Maddie, and is regarding her love for her husband, Bobby. "When you asked me if I would go through another transplant, and I said yes, for more time with Bobby, you couldn't believe it, could you? Maybe because you never felt that way about somebody. You should be as happy as I've been, even through all of this crap." In my opinion, that's the kind of love we should all aspire to, or be so lucky to have.
Kim
Rating:
Review
This novel begins with main character, Olivia Hunt's, letter to her sister, and continues in that fashion, with correspondence in every form (including the very ancient form of communication, the telegram), from Olivia, to family, friends, and most notably, to Madeline, the aforementioned younger sister. Olivia is in the movie business, so between trying to remake a 400- year-old novel into a 20th century film, she is also still smarting from a bad break-up when Maddie is diagnosed with leukemia. I enjoyed reading such well written letters that were concise and witty at times, and very revealing of all involved. I wasn't very hopeful about this book when I saw the cover, which made me think someone might be trying to rip off The Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood ‘s book cover, but I was happily surprised by this novel, and I especially liked the afterward by the author.
Best Line:
"I guess when you're a kid you only hope for the best; you don't hope he will get out, you hope he'll turn into the dad you want; you don't hope they'll get a divorce, which would end the fighting, you hope tomorrow morning there will be a sunny, loving couple living in your house."
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