All the Best People
An intricately crafted story of madness, magic and misfortune across three generations from the author of The Middle of Somewhere and House Broken...
Vermont, 1972. Carole LaPorte has a satisfying, ordinary life. She cares for her children, balances the books for the family’s auto shop and laughs when her husband slow dances her across the kitchen floor. Her tragic childhood might have happened to someone else.
But now her mind is playing tricks on her. The accounts won’t reconcile and the murmuring she hears isn’t the television. She ought to seek help, but she’s terrified of being locked away in a mental hospital like her mother, Solange. So Carole hides her symptoms, withdraws from her family and unwittingly sets her eleven-year-old daughter Alison on a desperate search for meaning and power: in Tarot cards, in omens from a nearby river and in a mysterious blue glass box belonging to her grandmother.
An exploration of the power of courage and love to overcome a damning legacy, All the Best People celebrates the search for identity and grace in the most ordinary lives.
My ReviewVermont, 1972. Carole LaPorte has a satisfying, ordinary life. She cares for her children, balances the books for the family’s auto shop and laughs when her husband slow dances her across the kitchen floor. Her tragic childhood might have happened to someone else.
But now her mind is playing tricks on her. The accounts won’t reconcile and the murmuring she hears isn’t the television. She ought to seek help, but she’s terrified of being locked away in a mental hospital like her mother, Solange. So Carole hides her symptoms, withdraws from her family and unwittingly sets her eleven-year-old daughter Alison on a desperate search for meaning and power: in Tarot cards, in omens from a nearby river and in a mysterious blue glass box belonging to her grandmother.
An exploration of the power of courage and love to overcome a damning legacy, All the Best People celebrates the search for identity and grace in the most ordinary lives.
Instantly, I connected with Alison. I felt so horrible for her that a time when she really needed her mother the most, she was not there for her. Alison was growing up into a young woman and looked to her mother for guidance but found none. Her father and brothers were of no assistance. Yet, in a way, I was also drawn to Carole. The way the author flashed back to show Carole before she was now, helped to bring me the reader into her world and feel compassion. However, unlike other readers who loved this book, I thought it was an just an fine read. The beginning of the story, took a while for me to connect with the story or the characters. Then, the story moved at a slow pace for periods at a time that did not help with my focus on this story. While, I was not in love with this book, I would try another book from this author.
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