If I sit inside, then nobody will know I’m in trouble. And so, then nobody will help me.
This was the hook that kept me listening to this award-winning author’s tale about the child of an addict who unites her lonely neighbors into a support team to keep her out of the child-welfare system until her mother gets her act together. Thus, an agoraphobic dancer from a privileged background, a black manicurist with trust issues, a Hispanic bachelor, and an aged widow help her blossom in her mother’s mental and emotional absence. Even as she is threatened by the system and a personal tragedy that strikes close to her in a blessed reprieve from another lurking danger, she undergoes a makeover that includes a new look and a new outlook.
Despite being billed as chick-lit, this story will appeal to anyone who has experienced the paralysis of loneliness or addiction and whose faith in humanity needs replenishment. A tale of possibility in an impossible world, it demonstrates the human capacity for change and our universal need for each other.
The mechanics of the narration feel a bit clunky, as if the author doesn’t always trust the reader to get it, but the story is more than solid. 2011, 429 pages or 11 ¼ hours on Audible [not recommended].