I really loved Sebold’s other books but after only a few pages of this I have to give up. Maybe it’s more about it just not being the right book at this time in my life. For starters, I recently finished “Mercy” which is a book about a man who kills his wife to spare her the pain of dying of cancer. Sebold’s book starts off with the sentence “When all is said and done, killing my mother came easily”. I’m really just not in the mood for this type of thing so soon after reading “Mercy”.

Still, I tried to read on, giving it a chance to grab my interest – but it goes on to describe the character’s mother’s physical and mental deterioration. This is also something I’m not in the mood for because currently, my husband’s parents are nearing the end of their lives and becoming more and more physically and mentally incapable. I guess I want to read something different to what is actually going on in my life right now. Maybe someday in the future I will pick this up again but right now, I’m not in the mood for it.