Author: Wally Lamb
Who Picked the Book: Group Pick
One-sentence summary: A young and struggling father makes a terrible mistake that causes ripple effects to his own life as well as his family.
B.A.D. Girls Book Rating: 7
Our favorite thing about it: The writing quality.
Our least favorite thing about it: The subject matter.
Main Topics of Discussion: Parenting, Guilt, Forgiveness, Relationships, Punishment, Addiction
Our favorite quote: "Maybe that spirit is speaking to me through the sound of moving water. And maybe that sound is telling me to trust that not everything is stuck and stagnant—that forward movement is possible."
Notes: This was a hard book to read. The subject matter is very intense from beginning to end. So, it's not a light read! That was the biggest negative for us - we're experiencing a time where we like to escape into a book and this was not that kind of book. However, Wally Lamb is an amazing writer (this is our second book to read of his as a group) and we could definitely appreciate his writing and character development. This book is less plot and more character-driven and we love that when it's done well. Although we didn't all identify with Corby, we did think that the dialogue and characters were so realistic. Each philosophical question that was raised made us stop and think and kept the story interesting. Many of us did not expect to be reading a prison book. Even after the first big plot point happened. Most of us were shocked by the ending. But we ultimately think it ended really well after raising the questions of whether or not his family life would pick up where he left off...or not. The emotions of the characters resonated with us deeply even if some of the actions didn't! Overall we liked this book, but thought that we read it at a time when our tolerance for stories like this might be low.
Memorable Meeting Moments: We were at the lake house for this meeting. We discussed the book the first night.
What We Ate: Our usual Lake House food!
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