Review: Compelling story but too much irrelevant detail
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 07 6, 2014
The year is 1989. Sunday Morning is the daughter of Iris Morning and Douglas Oshiro, who are the lead singer and a musician in the cult band, Grandma's Eye. Sunday is a bad seed, "dark inside, trouble waiting to happen." Something happened late 1983, when she was nearly fifteen, leading her to run away from home to Brazil. Five years later, now aged twenty, Sunday is dying of osteosarcoma and wants to return home but can't quite bring herself to do so. She believes she deserves the cancer because of her past behavior, especially her poor treatment of her younger sister Earth, who suffers from Rett Syndrome, a neurodevelopmental disorder.Scott Goodwin is commissioned to write the biography of Iris Morning, who also wants him to help find her daughter Sunday and reunite the family. Scott is left in an invidious position when Sunday seeks him out and agrees to tell him her side of the story as long as he keeps her return a secret from her family. Through Scott's notes and tape recordings we learn about Sunday's family history, and we are left to wonder what went so horribly wrong.The story is told alternately from the points-of-view of Sunday and Scott. This leads to some repetition and too much introspection from both characters. There are numerous editing errors including lack of quotation marks, especially when Sunday is telling Scott her story. The book is overly-long and in need of a severe edit. It is apparent the author is trying to display her knowledge of Brazil, but there is too much irrelevant detail on topics such as the metric system, coffee, vegetarianism, pets, the Portuguese language, a homeless poet, food, cooking, diet, TV shows, and football.On the plus side, there are some lovely and insightful lines, and the story is compelling.I received this book in return for an honest review.