This was the first fiction book in Oprah’s Book Club 2.0. That sort
of influenced my decision in choosing to read it. See here.
This book is the story of Hattie and August, and their
twelve children. It begins with them as a newly married couple, with twins:
Philadelphia and Jubilee (a lot of her children have interesting names).
Hattie
is only seventeen, and loves her babies fiercely, all the more so because her
own mother has recently passed away. Unfortunately, within the first chapter of
this book, the two contract pneumonia and die within a matter of days. (Not a
spoiler because this was on the book jacket, plus it’s in the first chapter,
and even though you know it’s coming, it is still so heartbreaking.)
Hattie never really gets over the loss of her babies,
becoming more distant and harsh with her future children, closing herself off
as much as she can to prevent that kind of pain again. Despite this shell, she
is hurt again and again by her loyalty to her children. One has epilepsy,
another becomes schizophrenic, another contracts tuberculosis, and yet another
is molested as a child. She takes these pains to heart even though she doesn’t
always show it to her children.
The book is established with a different character each chapter,
and the year. It progresses chronologically, but jumps from story to story, and
not all of Hattie’s children are covered, which I didn’t like. There were a lot
of questions left unanswered, and I frequently found myself disappointed when
characters were not mentioned again. Some of the stories were better than
others, although none of the characters were all that likeable. I found it hard
to love Hattie, although I pitied her most of the time. I understood her
distance from her children after such an awful loss, but I was angry with the
way she treated her subsequent children. They needed love and affection, and
she did not provide that for them. Granted, the woman had a gambling,
philandering husband who squandered away any meager savings she had managed to
keep, but nonetheless, she was not the best role model.
Because of the character transitions between chapters, the
book felt disjointed to me. There was, of course, the familial connection
between all of the characters, but there was little to tie them together
throughout. Also, the book left a lot unexplained, and kept me wondering about
how situations had or had not worked themselves out.
I enjoyed the book overall, but it was hard for me to feel
attached to anyone, and when I did, they were never heard from again. I felt
the book could have flowed a lot better too, and remained more connected to the
family by simply referring to the previously mentioned characters more often.
If you are looking for a story told from different
viewpoints, try Maine by J. Courtney Sullivan.
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