I have
been asked how I manage to have time to read and write about books. The answer
is simple: I neither watch television nor movies. I prefer books.
Books engage
us in fascinating conversations in my family. I appreciate how books inspire us
to come together and communicate, to learn more about ourselves and others. Hopefully,
this blog will inspire other families to share the joy of reading books and to
connect through them…
My
Writing Life blog celebrates the magic of books and encourages others to do the
same. What’s not to like about that?
I found today’s book, The Library of Lost and Found, in one of the Little Free libraries in my town. If you don’t know anything about Little Free libraries, I invite you to learn about them here. Little free libraries can be found across the world and are a fun way of spreading and sharing the wonder of books with your community.
Martha
Storm, the main character of The Library of Lost and Found, worked as a
part-time librarian, but she also volunteered full-time at her local library.
The library was located in a seaside village in the United Kingdom. Martha was
in her early forties and she applied three times for a full-time position there. Every
time she applied she got rejected, even though she had been volunteering at the
library for many years. The manager preferred to employ younger people with
little or no experience. Martha did her best to excel, but her efforts were not
valued.
Martha hosted
a reading group at the library, but the participants had no genuine interest in
books. They were there to tease her.
One day
somebody sent her a mysterious book that contained short stories she had
written during her childhood years. There was a handwritten dedication to her
by her best friend—her grandmother-- whom she thought had died almost three
decades before. The dedication was dated three years after she had died, so Martha contemplated the possibility that her grandmother could be alive.
Martha was motivated to trace the origin of
the book to understand what had happened. Who had published it? How did it
reach her? Her quest would lead to various secrets and discoveries about her
life. This intriguing aspect of the story captured my attention and spurred me
to keep reading. Unlike other books I’ve read this year, which were hard to put
down, this one felt claustrophobic. Most of the female characters in this story are
submissive and boring. They lack assertiveness and personal aspirations. They
are overly concerned about pleasing others. At the beginning I thought the
story had taken place in the 1950s, but then I read that the characters were
exchanging emails, so it dawned on me that the novel was set in the twenty-first
century. There are also chapters about her childhood from the 1970s and 1980s.
There was a history of emotional abuse in
Martha’s childhood and her family was dysfunctional. The absurdity and
outrageous nature of their actions, lies and poor decisions left me reeling. The
only reason I forced myself to complete the read was that I wanted to get to
the core of the mystery. I was intrigued, but I did not feel any kind of
connection to the characters. Martha was supposed to be a book lover. However,
there was nothing about her that suggested that her interest was authentic. She
spent her time pleasing others and responding to their needs, even when they
treated her with disrespect. None of the characters was relatable. I thought
Owen Chamberlain was an interesting person, but we do not get to know him
very well.
What did I like about the story? The author created a vivid atmosphere. She
knows how to immerse the reader fully in the setting. I love the Read and Run
idea to share a book and leave it behind for others to grab it and own it (I will not elaborate on this because I want to avoid spoilers). I also appreciate
how the author shows the ageism that women face. Ageism is often ignored, and
it is a very serious issue that deserves attention.
When I discovered the book, I thought it was a mystery novel with unique, quirky characters. However, I ended up being trapped in a dismal story of emotional abuse, trauma and senseless behaviors.
I dislike
stories about women that behave like martyrs, even when the ending shows that
something deep changes in the character.
There are other titles by the same author
that may be different from this novel. I would like to explore them. I may appreciate
some of her other works.
