Krishna
A really cosy, nice, family drama. The story follows the lives of Alice Goodwin and her family, which includes her husband Howard Goodwin and children Emma and little Claire.
This was a book that was chosen for the Oprah Book Club as well as made into a movie starring Sigourney Weaver and Julianne Moore. I did not hear of the movie earlier, so I do not know how it did in the box office.
Howard is a man who is the most happy when farming, and realizes his life’s ambition in having bought a farm in a small town in Wisconsin. Alice works as a nurse in the local school and is happy and contented.
They are close friends with Theresa and Dan Collins, their neighbours. Theresa often leaves their children Lizzy and Alice, in her care. Theresa works as a psychologist.
The book takes off immediately when Lizzie, under Alice’s care, wades into a pond in front of her house and drowns. The life of both families turns upside down with this tremendous tragedy. The friendship is put under a strain it cannot take, and the already mercurial and emotional Alice goes to pieces, wracked by guilt and remorse.
She cannot even face attending the funeral of Lizzy. Theresa cannot face her after the tragedy.
Alice becomes unsbalanced and withdrawn into herself, unable to cope with even the quotidian drudgery of everyday life, when disaster strikes again.
A child in her school, Robby Mackesy, accuses her of sexual harassment. When two other students come forward to make the same accusations, and when Alice is arrested and thrown in jail with a bond for release set at an unaffordable $100,000, an already bad situation seems to get worse.
The story moves on to describe the experiences of Alice in the prison, Howard’s desperation, the family’s virtual ostracizing by the entire community, – he cannot even find anyone to babysit his kids when he goes to visit Alice in prison – his decision to give up his dream to raise money for Alice’s bail, and the subsequent court case.
The story is told by Alice, then Howard, and finally Alice again – so it is all in the first person. The story is nicely told, with comfortable narration and pace that keeps the readers’ interest. It keeps moving at an easy pace and the story unfolds at an even pace. There is no cliffhanger situations or nail-biting climax, but the author makes the situation interesting enough and the prison experiences of Alice and the later courtroom scenes keep the story interesting to the end.
The characterization of the defense lawyer is interesting, as is the characterization of Robbey Mackessy and his mother. Alice comes across as a stubborn, willful woman but then that is exactly the intended effect the author seeks to portray. The emotions are real and believable and the book is a good read.
Let us say a 7/10.
— Krishna