I've been working until 9 and 10 at night, working weekends, living off ham sandwiches and frozen spinach/kale/broccoli [and taking my vitamins faithfully], and worrying about my ulcer, which is showing signs of flaring up, unsurprisingly.
So last weekend I picked up a potboiler at the grocery store for my 'down time', such as it is.
I like Grafton's alphabet mysteries, they're usually a good light read. But THIS one knocked my SOCKS off!
I am not going to ruin the story for you. But I really encourage people to look at this book. She has taken a tragic event in a small town, decades back, and has gone into the personalities of the people involved in a way that puts it all out in the open... alcoholism, other addictions, domestic violence, bullying, narcissistic entitlement, denial, enablling. She moves back and forth between past and present and you see what the consequences are of the behaviors in question -- you see some people make real changes, and you see others attain 'dry drunkhood', and others who are frustrated and stuck.
It's like a living case study of borderline personality disorder, psychopathy, and other conditions [different characters]. And there's a very compassionate portrayal of a voiceless person at the center of this novel.
But the psychological stuff doesn't get in the way of the story. It IS the story, underneath. She never labels or names any of the behaviors or compulsions that she portrays - she leaves that for the reader. Not even her main character quite 'gets' all of it, because there are parts of the story that are shared with the reader alone, leaving a difference in perspective that doesn't get in the way at all.
The whole thing is just amazing.
There isn't graphic violence [edit in: there is one episode where someone is bounced from a bar more forcefully than necessary - and it is not sugarcoated] but there is some graphic sexuality. There is also an incredible portrayal of abuse and abusiveness - in several different forms - within 'friendship', within relationships, within marriage. I really was floored by this book... there's so much depth and richness to it - and I'm frustrated as heck, because I'd like to talk about it more here, but I don't want to ruin the story for people.
Caution: it does get sad in places, and it also gets scary in places, and there are things people do that will probably infuriate most folks here because of the things we have experienced in our own lives. But I really recommend picking up a copy - and if you can't get through it now, if it upsets or angers you, put it aside and try again another time. It's a small masterpiece, and it provides an incredible chance to identify and recognize so many of the things we here have suffered from ourselves, sometimes for decades, and could never name.
