Genre: Woman’s
Fiction/Psychological Fiction
Description:
“An eccentric seventy-year-old is obsessed with changing her life — or
ending it. She bumbles through mysterious rituals with a talk-therapist,
explodes secrets, re-jigs behaviours and embraces bliss in the arms of a woman
who was right in front of her for fifty years.”
Author:
Author Sharon Baltman is a retired psychotherapist who lives in
Toronto, Ontario when she’s not in her preferred place, hanging out on the
beach in Mexico. She’s written lots of shorter works ranging from articles for
the Globe and Mail, Toronto’s newspaper, to contributing to literary
anthologies. Her first longer work was a memoir called Escape from the
Bedside. This is her first novel.
Appraisal:
Although woman’s fiction, I found that the story here hit closer to
home for me, a no-longer-very-young guy, more than I would have anticipated.
The story revolves around Anne, a seventy-year-old woman who goes to a therapist
for help in figuring out her life, both where she’s been and, more importantly,
where she wants to go from here. I could see potentially anyone, at least any
adult, enjoying this story and having it trigger thoughts about their own lives.
I found that my age (a bit younger than Anne, but close enough) meant I could
relate to a lot of the specific thoughts, feelings, and struggles she was going
through, which added a lot to the story. I imagine most people would find some
things that struck a chord with them in Anne’s life while other things wouldn’t
fit (I luckily have a better relationship than Anne does with her kids, for example).
One unique aspect of this story is how much of it is the reader figuratively
sitting in Anne’s head, more involved in understanding and following her
thoughts than on what’s happening in the world around her, the biggest exception
being what her therapist has to say to her. But her story and her struggle to
get to a better place kept me engaged throughout.
Buy now
from: Amazon US Amazon UK
FYI:
Uses Canadian spelling conventions.
Format/Typo
Issues:
No significant issues.
Rating: ****
Four Stars
Reviewed
by: BigAl
Approximate word count: 35-40,000 words
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