Simon & Schuster, November 1, 2016.
Four Stars
Alice Hoffman has recently written some fantastic
historical novels, such as The
Dovekeepers and The Marriage of
Opposites, but Faithful brings
back her classic style – a coming of age story edged with her own kind of magic
realism. She is an expert at character building, especially in the form of
ordinary young women who experience extraordinary events.
Shelby is a teenage girl growing up on Long Island,
when a car accident puts her best friend Helene in a coma and derails Shelby’s
entire future. Helene becomes a sort of local spectacle, with neighbours making
pilgrimages to her bedside because they think she can perform miracles.
Meanwhile, Shelby won’t even visit Helene because she is carrying so much guilt
over the accident. Her feelings manifest themselves in a suicide attempt and
too much time wasted in her parent’s basement – but eventually she finds a way
to move on, in New York City.
In the city, Shelby is in a relationship with a boy
from her hometown – he adores her, but she just cannot accept his love.
Instead, she is obsessed with Chinese food and strays of all kind, especially
dogs in all shapes and sizes that she rescues off the streets of New York City.
She can never fully connect to her boyfriend, and eventually realizes that she
must leave her past behind completely in order to move forward.
Although her relationship with her boyfriend is
unsuccessful, Shelby experiences many other complex and powerful relationships –
the most meaningful one was with her mother, as they reconnect later in life.
Shelby seems to surround herself with a collection of lost souls, and she
eventually finds hope in her heartbreak. Her mental instability, brought on by
the car accident and never properly dealt with, is only somewhat resolved by
her final stable relationship.
Throughout her time in New York, Shelby receives
unsigned postcards with perfectly timely messages, such as “say something” or “want
something” – she feels like she is being watched over by an angel who always
knows exactly what she needs to hear to move forward. It turns out that her “angel”
was closer than she realized, giving her a sense of faith and wonder, in
herself and in the world around her.
Although I often felt emotionally manipulated by
Shelby’s character, especially watching in frustration while she cannot or will
not help herself, I do feel like it was a realistic portrayal of the time and
energy it would take to recover from such a tragedy as Shelby experienced. This
novel is an exploration of the depths of grief and guilt, but it is also about
recovery and redemption, as Shelby learns that every life is worth saving.
I received this book from Simon & Schuster and
NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
No comments:
Post a Comment