Outside The Ordinary World: Book Review

In Dori Ostermiller's debut novel, infidelity is at the root of the problems for both a mother, and later on, her adult daughter.

Sylvia always swore she would never become like her mother. She hated the secrecy involved. What it ultimately did to their family. And how it ended in tragedy.

But an attraction to the father of one of her art students compels her to jeopardize her marriage and her family despite her convictions otherwise. She seems unaware that the true tragedy lies in never coming to terms with her mother's two separate lives during her childhood. It was just never spoken about. And thus never resolved between mother and daughter.

The mother, Elaine, though religious in the outward sense, led another life as the mistress to "Mr. Robert." She brought her daughters into this relationship, by forcing them to keep her secret as they grew up. They felt guilty toward their father, who turned to alcohol to deaden his anxieties. Which further complicated and scarred the family.

Funny how life tends to inexplicably repeat itself. And in the most secretive of ways. Sylvia rides this same roller coaster of infidelity. She is consumed and driven by a passion for another man. And falls into the very same trap as her mother. As though she doesn't know what it can do to a family and a marriage, she finds herself spinning her own web of deception.

Dori Ostermiller takes us through a journey of mother and daughter and their revelations. Proving how sometimes lies and the secrecy they command can begin to consume us.

Ostermiller delves into these two characters as though she is not just their creator, but their private audience as well. These richly woven characters seem to spread their own wings and fly into being almost effortlessly. Which is giving high praise to the novelist herself.

Book Review: Vanishing And Other Stories

We have all heard stories about people who simply vanish. We are drawn to these stories like gawkers at a train wreck. They have us hypnotized by the sheer audacity of such a willful act.

Deborah Willis makes her debut as the author of such stories. These stories aren't all about people who leave and never come back. There are various kinds of "vanishing" in life, we learn.

In one story, Tabitha is ten years old when her writer/lawyer father inexplicably leaves while she and her mother are at the store. 

On the day that her father disappeared, Tabitha came home with her mother and went up to the attic.

"Dad?" she called up into the dark place where he did his writing. No answer, and before she could help it, she imagined her father hanging from the ceiling. She pictured it like the movies: his crumpled face and a sinister, creaking rope. She imagined that his swinging body looked long - not tall, long. She climbed the ladder, feeling sick and dizzy as she put her foot on the final step. Then, weak-kneed with relief - initial, foolish relief - she found the attic empty.

As the years pass, we learn how Tabitha is faring in the world. How she is dealing with the loss of her father. How it shapes who she becomes.

"Nearly everybody's heard of the playwright who disappeared, and when people learn Tabitha's last name, three times out of five they ask if there's any relation. When she nods, they say things like, "He must have been such a fascinating man." Yes, she smiles. He was very clever. Vanishing, she thinks, was the smartest thing he ever did. 

The author holds us firmly in her grasp as she deftly moves among these characters that she has fleshed out to seem so real. She can easily get inside the character of man, woman or child. And each nuance seems perfectly crafted. 

It is because of this trait that I think we'll be hearing a lot about Deborah Willis, Canadian citizen and clerk in a book store. Former horseback riding instructor and reporter. Along with a bevy of other jobs along the way. 

She has found her calling. She must write. It would be such a shame if this woman did not simply write.

What We Have: A Memoir

Just imagine what it would feel like to be born and grow up female, knowing full well that no woman in your family has lived past age 45 due to cancer.

Amy Boesky and her sisters knew they would someday have to face difficult decisions. As they went about their young lives, they felt the urgency to hurry up, get married, and have children. Before it was too late.

They were advised by their doctors to not wait past age 35 to have preventative surgery. So Amy had not only her own life to consider, but then the worry that comes from knowing your sisters face the very same curse. And then there's her mother's fate as well.

It made me really think about genetic predispositions and traits. Precursors of health woes. And how this figures into our destiny as humans. And in this particular case, women.

Amy writes: "Later, looking back, I sometimes played a terrible game with myself, trying to decide which goodbye was hardest. There were so many of them, layered on top of each other, and each seemed more difficult than the others. It was like listening to music that reached a crescendo only to build and build until you were certain you couldn't bear it anymore."

Amy weaves back and forth from the past to the present in her quest to achieve her goals in the face of such frightening uncertainty. Her memoir reads much like a novel, as the cover attests.

This book is about being afraid at an early age. It is about changing what you can, and then hopefully living a full life despite what you cannot. 

Amy Boesky has degrees from both Harvard and Oxford, and has written several books for children and young adults. She lives in Massachusetts with her husband and two daughters. And is an associate professor of English at Boston College.

Book Review: Lies My Mother Never Told Me

She had big shoes to fill as a writer. Her father was a famous man. His name was James Jones and his claim to fame is "From Here To Eternity," That's mighty big shoes. And then there was "The Thin Red Line."

Yet she prevailed. Both as a writer and as a child who had parents who also were alcoholics, Kaylie Jones has overcome many obstacles. And this is her memoir.

Her story is not without its own tragedy. Alcoholism is often hereditary. There is not just having it around you from day one. There are the genes that heighten your risk. Kaylie could have been another statistic. But she fought the good war and she won. 

This memoir goes back and forth in time. Its passages are mere chapters to you and me. For her it was a roller coaster ride, to hell and back. And then some.

She grew up amidst the likes of William Styron, Irwin Shaw, James Baldwin, Willie Morris. She socialized with writers such as Truman Capote, Norman Mailer, and Kurt Vonnegut. You will read about common events in her life accompanied by celebrities we know by name only. 

Her father was a giant among writers. Her mother Gloria was relentless with her withering sarcasm and bitter criticism. Such is the life of a child of alcoholics. And yet, she was determined her own daughter would not suffer from this fate. 

In reading the story of Kaylie Jones, author of "A Soldier's Daughter Never Cries," we understand that she did her fair share of it behind closed doors. And that it took her many years to climb up out of the abyss she'd precariously fallen into.

"A Soldier's Daughter Never Cries" was ultimately made into a film. And it starred Kris Kristofferson and Barbara Hershey.