Friday, December 22, 2006
book report: Broken For You
Broken For You
by Stephanie Kallos
I got this book from the library after having a six-degrees-of-separation sort of connection with the author. (For HIPAA reasons I can't explain further.) And it has stuck in my head ever since, for an assortment of odd reasons.
The main character, Margaret, is an elderly woman who lives alone in a Seattle mansion filled with valuable antique porcelain pieces. She has been diagnosed with a brain tumor and places an ad for a roommate so she won't be alone. The young woman who moves in is Wanda, a stage manager who pretends she is completely self-reliant but is actually trying to find the man who left her. As Wanda and Margaret become closer, they both grow and change and begin to examine themselves and their secrets. Margaret is eventually forced to reveal that she is dying, and Wanda rises to the occasion.
A lot more happens, but you'll enjoy the book more if I don't tell you all about it. There are two reasons that this book stuck in my head, one of them meaningful and the other is so tiny as to be silly. The meaningful one is the portrayal of the end of Margaret's life - Kallos handles the subject beautifully. The silly one is that Wanda makes her coffee in a French press with lots of cinnamon, which I do as well, and so I think of the character every time I make coffee.
by Stephanie Kallos
I got this book from the library after having a six-degrees-of-separation sort of connection with the author. (For HIPAA reasons I can't explain further.) And it has stuck in my head ever since, for an assortment of odd reasons.
The main character, Margaret, is an elderly woman who lives alone in a Seattle mansion filled with valuable antique porcelain pieces. She has been diagnosed with a brain tumor and places an ad for a roommate so she won't be alone. The young woman who moves in is Wanda, a stage manager who pretends she is completely self-reliant but is actually trying to find the man who left her. As Wanda and Margaret become closer, they both grow and change and begin to examine themselves and their secrets. Margaret is eventually forced to reveal that she is dying, and Wanda rises to the occasion.
A lot more happens, but you'll enjoy the book more if I don't tell you all about it. There are two reasons that this book stuck in my head, one of them meaningful and the other is so tiny as to be silly. The meaningful one is the portrayal of the end of Margaret's life - Kallos handles the subject beautifully. The silly one is that Wanda makes her coffee in a French press with lots of cinnamon, which I do as well, and so I think of the character every time I make coffee.
Labels: book reports
