Review: The Definition of Family Is Not a Simple One
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 04 3, 2013
Judy Mollen Walters is an author to keep a close eye on. She has obviously been a student of certain genres of literature. Her style, although completely unique to her voice, does show those comparisons to hours spent in college classrooms drawing ideas from concepts, target lessons or around patterns. This debut book takes pieces of those lessons and melds them into a style that will transport the reader into her written world and the circumstances covered in this book As the global "they" might continue to search for a specific genre for this book and style, the book is here and it is worth putting on your own bookshelf; virtual or in your sitting room. Ms. Walters is uniquely touching upon several genres and cannot be categorized as an author of just one.Ms. Walters not only tackles one commonly censured subject but she handles a second restricted subject as part of the main focus of the storyline. Infertility and serious mental illness are important cornerstones of the story. She handles them with sensitivity but also with an insightful gift. Infertile couples many times become consumed by their inability to procreate. In this story, we learn that Katie and her husband are not immune to the struggles. She is a successful midwife who has delivered numerous babies, helping other couples to conceive when they had given up hope that they would become parents. That in itself speaks of the strength that Ms. Walters gives to her character Katie. With the support of her husband they visit specialists and partake in clinical procedures in an attempt to become parents.Katie is a character that every woman who has been cared for in a medical office might have wished for as her own practitioner. Compassionate, calm and direct in her questions and methods of treatment she appears efficient yet positive and encouraging. She is also a character who has lived within familial dynamics that might make other women crumble. Instead she has taken strength from adversity and has made it a priority to keep her family comfortable and intact. She juggles a sense of feeling unrooted because she was adopted; not a new discovery but one she feels compelled to follow up on now that she is looking to start her own family. She yearns to learn the reason why she was given up, although always gives credit to her adoptive parents as being loving and not making her feel second class for having been adopted; or chosen. She admits that seeking a baby through infertility treatments is her way of having a blood, genetic relative. That there would be enough of a twist and could have easily remained the focus of the story. But there is a sister involved. Lilia is emotionally unstable. He actions during the girls formative years had been scary and forged a sense of responsibility in Katie to care for her sister; sometimes to her own detriment and as adults to the discomfiture of Lila's husband Mike. Lila has a son that brings joy to Katie's life and causes concern when Lila is in a slump. Katie takes on much more of a role than that of just a doting aunt. She often become caretaker to Jake and her love for her nephew becomes a way to reach out to the child she continues to yearn for.Mental illness, infertility, miscarriage, adoption, medical complications, losing a parent to a painful death, getting the call that her aunt across the country has taken a turn for the worse in a nursing home thousands of miles across the country; Katie and husband Brian face it all. There are cracks in the facade when issues become too much. They disagree about things but they also find ways to reconcile and move forward. This book could just as easily been about the strength of a marriage and how this specific couple handles their turmoil. Even if the room in their home is not set up as a nursery, they both know that it is specifically in their home and is intended one day to become the bedroom for the child they are praying for.Subjects that might seem to be straightforward are suddenly complicated. There is a sense of mystery surrounding Katie and Lila's dying Aunt Ginny. Not only is there a question if she can shed light on Katie's adoption but there becomes a hint that Aunt Ginny has been living with her own secrets and they might follow her as her final breaths leave her body. The mystery of Aunt Ginny becomes yet an additional storyline and one that brought more balance to this novel. The unexpected information that Katie and Lila discover after the death of their Aunt Ginny adds a fascinating new path for the reader to follow. Portland become a place for discovery and answers.Facts about the complex subjects that Ms. Walters choses to include in her novel are not ignored but instead they are skillfully interwoven in the storyline and the character's lives.This is a fascinating debt novel with well developed characters. Serious but not uncommon subjects effect the characters and happily ever after seems like an impossible goal through disappointing times, fragile moments in relationships and family dynamics from unexpected places.This reader looks forward to many more novels by Ms. Walters. I am, with doubt, a member of the Judy Mollen Walters fan club.