50 - Lost; Alice Lichtenstein

Lost; Alice Lichtenstein

My head is aching and I feel like sleeping, yet I am plagued by books which I completed over the last (2) weeks that still need to be reviewed.  So since my brain is fuzzy, and I probably would have a tough time forming complete sentences, I am going to take the easy way out on a few books which I read, by posting the product review and just my opinion.

(Booklist review)

Lichtenstein’s second family-centered novel links three dissimilar families who come together one frigid weekend in northern New Jersey. Susan Hunsinger, a biology professor, and her older husband, Christopher, who suffers from dementia, have recently moved upstate from Princeton. Susan leaves Christopher briefly alone; when she returns, he has vanished. When she contacts the authorities, and the first to respond is Jeff, a social worker and search-and-rescue expert whose promiscuous wife has recently deserted him. Lichtenstein carefully fills in the disparate backgrounds of these vulnerable characters: Susan’s struggle to care for her incapacitated husband, and her reluctance to ask for help; Jeff’s feelings of inadequacy professionally and as a husband. And in the background is Corey, a youngster whose family hates and ultimately abandons him because of the accidental fire he started, killing his brother. Jeff and Susan step in and create a surrogate support group for Corey that turns out to be as healing for them as it is for him. Lichtenstein tells a simple, moving story about the ways sorrow and loss can bind survivors together.

MY (fuzzy)THOUGHTS - The story is told from the viewpoints of (3) characters: Susan, Jeff and Corey who are brought together when Christopher, Susan's 72 year old husband with Alzheimer's becomes "Lost", one morning.  Susan is 12 years younger than her husband.  While the search and rescue process was very well researched, for some reason the story just did not flow smoothly for me, and ultimately left me feeling a bit flat. Other reviews have been very positive, so maybe it was just a case of wrong time, wrong book? Try this one for yourself and decide. (3/5 stars)

(review copy from publisher)