Friday, July 30, 2010

Review - One for Sorrow, Two for Joy by Elise Juska


TITLE: One for Sorrow, Two for Joy
AUTHOR/EDITOR: Elise Juska
INFO: Paperback, Fiction, 270 pages
PUBLISHED: Pocket Books, 2007
ISBN#: 978-1-4165-1692-7
HOW'D I GET IT: Bought it

FROM THE COVER/PUBLISHER:  For two quietly unhappy years, linguist Claire Gallagher has been living deep in the New Hampshire woods, enduring a polite but strained marriage to a highly respected scientist.  Once a determined overachiever and academic star in her own right, she now spends her days avoiding her stalled dissertation and creating EZ crossword puzzles.  But for all Claire's knowledge of words and their meanings, the meaning in her own life eludes her.  One bleak morning in winter, she announces that she's leaving.

By nightfall, at the urging of her younger sister Noelle, Claire finds herself heading to the last place she thought she'd ever go:  Ireland--the birthplace of he abrasive, chronically ill mother and the country Noelle, a college dropout, now calls home.  In a small town on the Irish coast, Claire's struggle to move ahead with her life takes her deep into the puzzles of her past--in a world in which there are no simple answers, and the only questions are those of the heart.


MY TAKE:  As a lover of words myself, I really enjoyed that Claire was so firmly entrenched in the world of words and their meanings.  I liked that she was constantly running it through her head when a word came up and the definitions were those that described her life and her situation.

The main reason I bought it (at the thrift store) was that I liked the author's "Getting Over Jack Wagner".  Of course, the fact that the book was set in Ireland sold me completely.  Great descriptions of scenery and I want to go to the pub where Claire's sister Noelle works - sounds like fun.

Enjoyable read and a nice change of pace from some of the more "frivolous" books in this genre.  

MY RATING: 3/5

WHERE TO BUY IT:   One for Sorrow, Two for Joy on Amazon.com

Happy Reading!

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