My Never Ending List

I loved the way this novel was written. The story felt complete yet so few words were used to tell it. Short prose paragraphs made up each page, sometimes using just one or two sentences.   It takes a master to do this, to orchestrate it so beautifully, meticulously picking out the precise words, being careful not to leave anything out, and creating a picture that the reader is drawn to. My emotions were swept away as August deals with the death of her father and the memories of her childhood. As a child, she yearned for the world outside her window but her father locked her and her brother inside their apartment telling them that the world was not as safe as it seemed. The few short years that she spent with her mother, her mother’s harsh words about women have cast a dark shadow on August and female relationships yet what she witnesses out her window, have her thinking that perhaps her mother might have been wrong. And now, where has her childhood left her? Her brother’s words remind her of where she is at but it is still her choice with what she does with her life. It was an emotional read, not one that I cried with or one where I sat at the edge of my seat but a novel where the emotions were felt throughout my whole body. I believe the story was a simple one, but it had a great impact.