This is a beautiful, satisfying story of a young girl’s search for understanding about her mother. The characters are wonderful, slightly eccentric but completely believable and the story follows a natural, unhurried pace to its end.

It is described as ‘inspiring’, and it is, but what I particularly liked is how it carefully avoided the unrealistic fervour that America is unfortunately known for. The message of ‘believe in yourself, you are a good person, the universe is on your side’ was not over done, and somehow conveyed the idea of limitless potential along with a good dose of common sense about how to react with dignity when life doesn’t live up to expectations.

Interesting that both the female authors I have read so far have been concerned with family and how to be a good member of a family, whereas the male authors so far have written about individuals, possibly connected but rarely bonded with another. The exception would be A Prayer for Owen Meany, but the story is about a bond severed by death, and the main character at the time of the book has been twenty years without closeness. Unsuccessful relationships litter the tales and an inablity to have sex for some reason was a theme in The Catcher in the Rye and A Prayer for Owen Meany. Whitman is the only one who seems to delight in relationships, although in his case it is with the world and everyman rather than with a special group or person.