Monday, December 12, 2011

One True Thing by Anna Quindlen

From Amazon: After caring for her mother during her final, painful battle with terminal cancer, Ellen Gulden discovers many surprising things about her mother's life and finds herself accused of murdering her mother in a mercy killing.

I usually love Anna Quindlen but this one was a little bit slow for me. And, it turns out, I must have read it before because there was one part I remembered quite clearly (the "Minnies" decorating Christmas trees on the town square) and I had a feeling about the ending being a twist but couldn't remember what the twist was. So, Black and Blue remains my favorite of hers so far and I am looking forward to finding a copy of her newer book, Every Last One.

This book counts for these challenges:

2 comments:

Beth(bookaholicmom) said...

I loved Every Last One and Black and Blue. I also read Blessings a looong time ago and remember enjoying it. I have not read One True Thing but did see the movie. It was just okay for me. I think I'll skip the book.

UK said...

One True Thing is an easy book to fall in love with. This novel describes and depicts the lives of two individuals in their struggle and journey of harmonious growth. The journey of Ellen and her mother is one that most of us know, or will come to know. Through tears and laughter, Quindlen touches us all through the novel¿s central theme ?what it means to have and be a mother. The relationship between a mother and her daughter is much like the connection between vanilla ice cream and chocolate syrup; in many ways the two are different and do not need one another, but all the same, they complement each other to form a wonderful bond. In Anna Quindlen¿s One True Thing, the mother-daughter relationship is examined extensively. Quindlen focuses on issues such as the interdependency and role reversal that take place between a mother and her daughter during complicated life experiences. Empathy, sympathy, and the formation of a bond are all aspects of a mother-daughter relationship that come into effect when times are unfortunate. As complex as mother-daughter relationships tend to be, there is always a little indication of love and family ties and responsibility that hold the two together. Personality conflicts between mother and daughter can result in a loose, underdeveloped relationship.