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But I've also read it over at least three times. Moreso, though, its a good snapshot of an adult daughter's relationship with her mother, and reminder of ahow surprising it is for some of us to realize that after all those year of raising us, our parents are actually just people.
I love the way she uses her words, I love her essays and observations, and I'd love to take her to lunch and pick her brain about writing and just bask in her greatness. I love Anna Quindlen.
It's the story of a young journalist called home to care for her mother as she struggles with cancer. That said, because I love Quindlen's writing so much, I'm inclined to read anything she puts out -- no matter the topic.
"One True Thing" is a book that I'm glad that I read, but it was incredibly hard to get through. There are a lot of difficult issues tackled in this book, such as euthanasia, and I shed quite a few tears over the story.
Don't forsake the book for the movie - like most good writers, Quindlen's characters deserve a look as she wrote them, not as actors have interpreted them for the screen.
I liked the movie too. It should have focused a little more on her husband though to seems a bit selfish during his wife's illness.
It made you think. I read an older version of this book, and was moved by it.
The end will surprise you. Some parts were depressing but that's how someone who has cancer is.
It's about a young woman who quits her job as a NY Journalist to take care of her mother who is dying of cancer. That's the only downfall of this book but otherwise it was a beautiful and moving story but sad so please bring some kleenex when reading it.
Meryl Streep was great as the mother.
Yet, it overcomes its inherent weakness to be quite moving at times, while touching on themes that are very current in our society.The basic premise: The favored, ultra-smart daughter (Ellen) of a haughty college professor quits her job as a New York City magazine journalist to care for her mother, who's dying of cancer at age 45. In those ways, the book feels very calculating; it's designed to appeal to women who buy books. The book is written for well-educated women who feel the twin pressures of family and career. The depictions of Ellen's father as distant, cold and demanding do an equally believable job of presenting a marriage that has faltered. Those realizations lead Ellen to question her path in life, though she would not have necessarily actually changed it. But Ellen is accused of murdering her mother -- that is, putting her mother out of her misery -- and that public humiliation is the final push she needs to break with her past. This is a book written for a certain type of person, which is perhaps a strength and is definitely a weakness. Ellen's contempt for her mother's chosen path is well-described, and it makes her transformation to an understanding of what domesticity meant to her mom very believable.
In sum, "One True Thing" is a good book if you like to contemplate family dynamics. Yet, despite all the cliches, the book is quite moving. But many of the characters, including Ellen, are only occasionally sympathetic. Just about the only thing it doesn't do is sprinkle name brands throughout the text, in the manner of lesser writers. In the six months or so of care, Ellen learns about her mother's true strengths and, along the way, learns about herself. The scenes as Ellen's mother gets more ill brought a lump to my throat and gave me a glimpse of how I will feel when my parents grow feeble.
It hits all the obvious spots: a distant and demanding father, a domestically oriented mother, Ivy Leaguers, 20-somethings building careers in the big city, meaningless but awesome sex with handsome men, a gay brother, too much drinking, cathartic tears, best girlfriends, etc. Also, the book has just enough intellectual references that a liberal-arts graduate can have some vague notion of what's being mentioned (and thus feel smart), but then explains the references because for most readers, the authors and philosophers are nothing more than names once memorized for a test. The images of a dying parent and the regrets that arise in each of our lives will stay with me for a while. If you despise Ivy League achievers, then don't read it, because this is a book about an Ivy Leaguer who can take a timeout from life to help her mother, then reflect on the experience, and then rather effortlessly build a new career and life.
The writing is rich and evocative. This book is a gripping, well-written novel about a young woman's changing life as she sets aside her career and aspirations to care for her dying mother. Ellen, the daughter, grows to see her mother's unspoken strength and influence. Dynamics of family triangles, collusion and secrets are all explored. The portrayal of the arrogant, academic father is almost visual. She also learns to acknowledge her mother's place, and hence her own, in the family. All of this makes for a very rich and readable book.
I very much enjoyed this book - and I am happy that I have two of her other books. Yet for being less than three hundred pages it seemed full of words. It is really a prime example of literary fiction, with all of the discussion of classic novels, though at its heart, it is a story about family. It was quite an engrossing book and a fast read. concise, but flowery. an oxymoron, I suppose, but somehow fitting.
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