The Correspondent

Author: Virginia Evans

Who Picked the Book: Amberly

One-sentence summary: A woman's life is slowly revealed through the letters she has received and written her whole life, showing her relationships, mistakes, and growth.

B.A.D. Girls Book Rating: 8

Our favorite thing about it: The character development was wonderful.

Our least favorite thing about it: Sometimes we got frustrated with the main character!

Main Topics of Discussion: Epistolary style writing, Reading experience, Friendship, Mother/Child relationships, Grief, Guilt

Our favorite quote: “Imagine, the letters one has sent out into the world, the letters received back in turn, are like the pieces of a magnificent puzzle, or, a better metaphor, if dated, the links of a long chain, and even if those links are never put back together, which they will certainly never be, even if they remain for the rest of time dispersed across the earth like the fragile blown seeds of a dying dandelion, isn’t there something wonderful in that, to think that a story of one’s life is preserved in some way, that this very letter may one day mean something, even if it is a very small thing, to someone?”

Notes: We all universally liked this book. We discussed how epistolary style writing can sometimes go wrong - and how this time it really worked. The reader has to do more work and pay attention to dates, headings, who is writing, etc. But we seemed to all take that in stride. This book is very much about the character, Sybil. And we simultaneously liked and got frustrated with her! So, she was a very realistic character. This book places character development over plot, but it develops the character(s) so well that you don't miss having more of a plot. Connection to the main character was done so well and it made the whole book work. 

Memorable Meeting Moments: Amberly treated us to dinner at Wildwood and dessert/discussion at Dessert Avenue!

What We Ate: We had two dips for appetizers (spinach artichoke & Dragon dip), a couple of different entrees (shrimp & grits, pecan crusted chicken). For dessert - crepes, skillet brownie, tea, and chocolate marshmallow wand.