Wednesday, November 11, 2009

Woman in Red by Eileen Goudge


This book was a very pleasant surprise. Having never read Goudge before, I did what I usually do with new authors – give the first 50 pages a go – apprehensively. Right from the start, though, I was hooked. Goudge has an excellent knack for building characters from the ground up…and using those characters to be the basis for her strong storytelling. This story starts, told mostly in the present but also during WWII, with the story of Alice, a mother who just lost her older son and cannot deal with the not guilty verdict the jury just turned in on her son's drunk driving killer. Alice's story flash-forwards nine years later...and is then interwoven with the story of another wandering soul...Colin, who is in AA and recently widowed. Both of these main characters, as well as the sub-characters, are engaging and full of intensity...and passion. We want to get to know them better...we want them to get their troubles resolved. We want them to be happy. I would read Goudge again in a heartbeat!

No comments:

Post a Comment