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Named NOW Magazine's Best Emerging Local Author Where We Have to Go is a luminous and sassy first novel about the last days of childhood in a family coming apart at the seams. At once wryly humorous and deeply affecting, this sparkling novel follows the irresistible Lucy Bloom as she searches for her place in the world. When we first meet Lucy, she's an imaginative eleven-year-old dreaming of a taste of freedom -- and only beginning to grasp that all is not well between her parents. In the years that follow, Lucy's journey to adulthood will see her question the limits of unconditional love, grow "criminally thin" as she stops eating, and discover complicated truths about what it means to be a young woman. Through it all, the central figure in Lucy's life remains her mother, Joy, whose larger-than-life stories and boisterous voice belie a deep disappointment. As their relationship is tested again and again, Lucy comes to understand the resilience of the bonds that tie us to the ones we love. Among the characters we meet are Lucy' s father, Frank, a failed glamour photographer turned travel agent who's never been out of the country; her best friend, Erin, an artist whose outspoken iconoclasm will inspire and challenge Lucy; and Crashing Wave, Frank's lover, a former exotic dancer and the woman Lucy comes to imagine as the ideal of all that is feminine. Set in Toronto throughout the 1990s, Where We Have to Go is a novel of self-discovery, family, and love. It introduces Lauren Kirshner as one of our most striking new voices, and reminds us that sometimes the most difficult journey is the one that takes us home.… (más)
Kirshner's debut novel is the mostly sparkling coming-of-age story of Lucy Bloom, from early adolescence to young adulthood. Kirshner explores the dynamics of a secular, working-class, 1980s/90s Toronto Jewish family grappling with marital infidelity, alcoholism, and eating disorders, as well as the central character's negotiation of friendship, sexual awakening and identity. The above (dirty) laundry list of "issues" perhaps makes the book sound grim and dark, but the story is leavened by considerable humour, a lively first-person narration, and interesting three-dimensional characters. Kirshner is dextrous with language and the book is grounded in vivid sensory detail and fresh images. Overall, this is an entertaining and engrossing novel that makes the reader care about the central character, Lucy Bloom, and her family and friends.
The first 2/3 of the book are stronger than the latter third, in which Lucy's mother is ailing. I was rather confused by the section in which Lucy tells her incapacitated mother a "fictionally true" story about the brief period they spent away from Lucy's father in a run-down apartment complex. The author seems to be wanting to make a point here about the healing power of stories, but, to my mind at least, it didn't work. It would've been valuable to rethink, rework, and revise this section considerably prior to publication. An additional criticism: the farewell to the childhood home--saying goodbye to where the TV stood and the kitchen cupboards etc.--which concludes WHERE WE HAVE TO GO, is cliche, unlike the balance of the book, which--though it explored some familiar coming-of-age themes--did so with energy.
I look forward to reading Kirshner's future work and highly recommend her first offering. It is a solid book that deserves to be read by both adults and high-school-age young adults.
Thank you to Net Galley and the publisher for providing me with an ARC of this text. ( )
Información procedente del conocimiento común inglés.Edita para encontrar en tu idioma.
The night before my eleventh birthday, I dreamt I was five feet off the ground and flying through the No Frills grocery store on a royal blue Schwinn.
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Información procedente del conocimiento común inglés.Edita para encontrar en tu idioma.
So I close my eyes and stretch my arm farther out the window, grabbing the breeze and holding it in my hand, not letting go until we're through the intersection and flying.
Named NOW Magazine's Best Emerging Local Author Where We Have to Go is a luminous and sassy first novel about the last days of childhood in a family coming apart at the seams. At once wryly humorous and deeply affecting, this sparkling novel follows the irresistible Lucy Bloom as she searches for her place in the world. When we first meet Lucy, she's an imaginative eleven-year-old dreaming of a taste of freedom -- and only beginning to grasp that all is not well between her parents. In the years that follow, Lucy's journey to adulthood will see her question the limits of unconditional love, grow "criminally thin" as she stops eating, and discover complicated truths about what it means to be a young woman. Through it all, the central figure in Lucy's life remains her mother, Joy, whose larger-than-life stories and boisterous voice belie a deep disappointment. As their relationship is tested again and again, Lucy comes to understand the resilience of the bonds that tie us to the ones we love. Among the characters we meet are Lucy' s father, Frank, a failed glamour photographer turned travel agent who's never been out of the country; her best friend, Erin, an artist whose outspoken iconoclasm will inspire and challenge Lucy; and Crashing Wave, Frank's lover, a former exotic dancer and the woman Lucy comes to imagine as the ideal of all that is feminine. Set in Toronto throughout the 1990s, Where We Have to Go is a novel of self-discovery, family, and love. It introduces Lauren Kirshner as one of our most striking new voices, and reminds us that sometimes the most difficult journey is the one that takes us home.
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(3.88)
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The first 2/3 of the book are stronger than the latter third, in which Lucy's mother is ailing. I was rather confused by the section in which Lucy tells her incapacitated mother a "fictionally true" story about the brief period they spent away from Lucy's father in a run-down apartment complex. The author seems to be wanting to make a point here about the healing power of stories, but, to my mind at least, it didn't work. It would've been valuable to rethink, rework, and revise this section considerably prior to publication. An additional criticism: the farewell to the childhood home--saying goodbye to where the TV stood and the kitchen cupboards etc.--which concludes WHERE WE HAVE TO GO, is cliche, unlike the balance of the book, which--though it explored some familiar coming-of-age themes--did so with energy.
I look forward to reading Kirshner's future work and highly recommend her first offering. It is a solid book that deserves to be read by both adults and high-school-age young adults.
Thank you to Net Galley and the publisher for providing me with an ARC of this text. (