A Marker to Measure Drift
In a novel that is as hard to read as it is to put down, Maksik tells the heartbreaking story of Jacqueline, a 24-year-old woman wandering the beaches of Greece, homeless, starving, and slowly going mad. For most of the book it is only her voice we hear, often talking with her mother, who is not there. She does not beg but does massages for money for the tourists on the beach. She does not raid the trash for food or steal but watches a family picnic and then takes what they leave behind. Lonely, but fearful of letting anyone get too close, she finally opens up to a young waitress who is kind to her. It is then that we learn her story. Her father, a minister in Charles Taylor’s Liberian government, keeps the family in the country too long after the rebellion starts. Jacqueline’s dignity and strength win the reader over instantly. Her conversations with her family and the snatches of memories that leak through tell pieces of the story, which make the final revelation even more devastating. Maksik’s book is moving, painful, and beautiful. It will change you. --Elizabeth Dickie