What we're reading: Jackie Meeker

CWC-BOCHES Coordinator Jackie Meeker is currently reading Looking for Mary: Or, the Blessed Mother and Me, by Beverly Donofrio, and listening to When Madeline Was Young, by Jane Hamilton.

Update!

What Jackie thought of "When Madeline Was Young"

I was very interested in listening to Jane Hamilton’s When Madeline Was Young, as I had enjoyed her novel The Book of Ruth years ago. Unfortunately, I was less than taken with When Madeline Was Young. The premise of the book (according to the blurb on the back) was intriguing – shortly after marrying Aaron Maciver, Madeline is involved in a bicycle accident that leaves her with the mental capacity of a 7-year-old. Years later, Aaron remarries and he and his new wife, Julia, “adopt” Madeline and care for her as if she is their child. Okay, that’s a pretty unusual plot line, but it turns out to be more of an aside than an actual plot. The book is narrated by Aaron and Julia’s son, Timothy (aka “Mac”), and the story veers dramatically from Madeline’s situation to the political climate of the sixties to the present day. It was somewhat disjointed and slow-moving, and the characters were less than sympathetic. I almost gave it up less than half-way through, but stuck it out to the unsatisfying end, hoping it would get better. It didn’t.