There seemed almost a direct relationship between how attached her children had been to her in the old days and how distant they had grown in recent years.
Joyce Maynard, the best-selling author of eighteen books, knows how to tell a good story—particularly to a woman of a certain age who can chronicle the ascendance of every movement from Alvin and the Chipmunks to MeToo with equal fervor. In Count the Ways she delivers a tragic fairytale about an artist/writer and an artisan living the idyllic life out in the country, as Three Dog Night sang about it. But when Prince Charming proves to be Prince Disappointment, she takes the high road for the sake of the children in whom she has invested her life, only to find herself shunned by them. Of course, it’s not that simple. Nothing ever is. Without giving up any big spoilers, I’ll just say there’s a lot more dead in the water than their romance, and some betrayals are too broad and abiding to forgive. It all depends on who’s doing the telling.
Honor and anger walk hand-in-hand in this tale of moral dilemmas that ultimately offers a hopeful ending of sorts. But as Maynard acknowledges in this interview – this book is the most obviously connected to her own life experience, i.e., as a writer who is the main breadwinner in an ultimately disappointing relationship, and therefore smacks of victimhood. It also suffers from obsessive reminiscence; beautifully descriptive reminiscence to be fair, about how beautiful family life can be at its best, but the story would have and should have been cut by a third, in my opinion. At 464 pages, I would likely have abandoned it if not for the Audible version at 15 ¼ hours, expertly read by the author.