I wasn't sure about this novel when I first started reading it. I had downloaded it months ago and couldn't remember anything about it and was too lazy to look it up again. However, it didn't take me very long to get into it.
The book goes back and forth between telling about Alice as a young woman in the early 1920s-ish and Alice as a 94-year old in the present day with her new caretaker, Stella, a college student with an unhappy past. In fact, we get flashbacks of Stella's childhood as well, though not as frequently. Their stories slowly unfold but not in such a way as to make me frustrated. It was a good pace. I kind of guessed Stella's "big reveal" but not so much Alice's.
I especially liked when Alice talked about her relationship with her husband. In the "flashbacks", he was an unwanted beau; in the present day, he had been dead for quite some time. It was a complex relationship and I loved how she slowly lets us in on how their relationship started and especially how it ended. It was probably the biggest surprise of the book for me.
I may never re-read this book, but it is probably one I'll think back on over the years many times. I really liked it.
The book goes back and forth between telling about Alice as a young woman in the early 1920s-ish and Alice as a 94-year old in the present day with her new caretaker, Stella, a college student with an unhappy past. In fact, we get flashbacks of Stella's childhood as well, though not as frequently. Their stories slowly unfold but not in such a way as to make me frustrated. It was a good pace. I kind of guessed Stella's "big reveal" but not so much Alice's.
I especially liked when Alice talked about her relationship with her husband. In the "flashbacks", he was an unwanted beau; in the present day, he had been dead for quite some time. It was a complex relationship and I loved how she slowly lets us in on how their relationship started and especially how it ended. It was probably the biggest surprise of the book for me.
I may never re-read this book, but it is probably one I'll think back on over the years many times. I really liked it.