Nick grows up in a loving family but the fairy tale ends when he is orphaned and put into a boys home. He stoically waits out his time there and then branches out independently on his own.
He falls deeply in love with Dore and they are both happy specially when a baby is born to them. With the sudden tragic cot death of the baby Nick and Dore drift apart. They do not seem to have any means of communication between them and the death of the baby seems to be a divide that they cannot get over. Both suffering immensely in differing ways they drift permanently apart.
Nick in the meantime finds a second love with Leslie and has a daughter with her. The gradual disintegration of the marriage and how Nick finds himself trying to balance his love for his daughter and handle his feelings for Leslie as well. Leslie herself does not have a good relationship with Robin however much she tries and the story seems to be about family and how relationships can disintegrate, break up and get destroyed. It also shows how divided love can be and how it seems quite feasible for some men to love two women in different ways at the same time! The story is quite convoluted at this point and goes into further complications for all the parties concerned.
Robin the daughter seems to be the pivot on which the relationship of Leslie and Nick revolves on and when she disappears from the scene, their marriage collapses entirely. How Robin's return helps the parents reconcile to a degree of cordiality is also evident in the story.
It is also frightening to realize how much children depend on their very survival for parents to just simply exist. Their entire future seems to be so dependent on this feature and how when this is absent the entire structure can fall apart so rapidly was nerve wracking to even read about.
This was a book that got me thinking on several different lines which is what good books are all about.
This was a book sent to me by Netgalley for an honest review. The publishers are Open Road Integrated Media.
I read one of Leavitt's books a couple of years ago and it was the same way - it made me think about a lot of things. This sounds like another winner from her.
ReplyDeleteLooks like another powerful read by this author.
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