Summary:
Vermont, 1972. Carole LaPorte has a satisfying, ordinary life. She cares for her children, balances the books for the family’s auto shop and laughs when her husband slow dances her across the kitchen floor. Her tragic childhood might have happened to someone else.
But now her mind is playing tricks on her. The accounts won’t reconcile and the murmuring she hears isn’t the television. She ought to seek help, but she’s terrified of being locked away in a mental hospital like her mother, Solange. So Carole hides her symptoms, withdraws from her family and unwittingly sets her eleven-year-old daughter Alison on a desperate search for meaning and power: in Tarot cards, in omens from a nearby river and in a mysterious blue glass box belonging to her grandmother.
An exploration of the power of courage and love to overcome a damning legacy, All the Best People celebrates the search for identity and grace in the most ordinary lives.
Review:
This review might be a bit complicated, but this is a complicated read. To be honest, the beginning didn’t grab my attention as quickly as I would have liked. I had trouble connecting right away, but I’m happy I stuck with the story. It ended up being incredibly fascinating, twisted, and much more than I expected. From the 1930s to the 1970s, I was fascinated at the different perspectives we got. The book really focuses on mental illness, and how that was dealt with in the 30s and how drastically it was changed by the 70s. There were slow moments for me throughout, but then moments it picked right back up and I had to have my Kindle near me. I highly encourage you to pick up this book, and if the beginning starts off slow for you, keep going. You will not be disappointed with the story, and the ending truly made this hard to put down.
4 stars
