Suzanne Field

1940's — til today
Norwegian table — a gift to son — Minn. Min — mother slides into Mental Illness — stigma isolation — belief in God — Final Redemption — Okay — Christian Press Prob

Saffee Quimbly has always sensed her "normal" Quimbly household was far from normal. A television? No need. Having friends over? A mistake not to be repeated. Unreasonable expectations and criticism? Painfully expected. And all part of "normal." But her mother's unpredictable spells of arguing with imaginary tormentors, a Norwegian heirloom table subjected to countless layers of paint during such fits, and her father's refusal to seek help for his unstable wife these too are "normal." Saffee meets the wide-open world with these secrets stowed away, and she plans to keep things that way. Jack, a blind date gone right, helps Saffee gain victory over the past, and connect to spiritual moorings.… (más)

Interesting story about a large family from Norway living in North Dakota during dustbowl days, initially. One child, Josephine, grows up to have a family of two girls, married to a man from the old country. I loved how the author used language to portray his accent and that of others at times. She did this very well. The two girls, Saffee and April, grow up with a mother that is slowly going insane or has schizophrenia. The father is stoic and loyal to their mother and refuses for years to believe there is anything wrong.

Later in the book, it's obvious there is a religious element to all their lives, but it's a realistic story mostly about a dining table brought from the old country and what I comes to mean to various family members, along with memories, some good, some bad. And it's about Saffee's journey with her mother and family and then later when she has her own family and how she learns to be her own person and fit into the world in a way that her mother never did. Lovely story with loads of symbolism.

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I recieved this from first reads for an honest review. The beginning starts off with the norway table being gifted to Clara and Knute by their family after they move to american and make their living on a prairie farm. The life on the farm is described for Joanne (who will become Saffe's mother ) and her siblings. Once life in the prairie starts to become a burden they move to a lake side resort house. Joanne loves to dance and have a good time and soon is married to a dairy man Nels. Joanne and Nels go on to have 2 children together Sapphire Eve " Saffie" and April and in the beginning the only abnormality that can be seen in Joanne is her extreme awkwardness towards others and her being clingy towards Nels. Over the years Joanne's condition deteriorates with recurrent nightmares about prairie fires and obsessive painting of the norway table. Saffie is given more of a spotlight in the book then her sister April and it's described her feelings on her mother's behavior and she turns to reading and her faith to help her through the hard times. Later on when Saffie is married she reluctantly takes the norway table and while stripping away all the layers of paint uses it as a spiritual journey to lift all the negative emotions and memories there is with the norway table for her and her mother.

I enjoyed being able to look through Saffee and April's eyes and feel what it's like to have a mother that slips into psychosis. I loved the ending and when Saffe was describing her dream to Nels it was such a sweet moment.… (más)